Mark Adair, who was due to make his Ireland debut next week, has been pulled out of the squad by his county Warwickshire with a back injury.

Warwickshire coach Dougie Brown revealed yesterday that Adair "would not be taking part in the series against Afghanistan" at Stormont. The first of the five games is on Sunday.

Missing the chance of an international debut is a devastating blow for the 20-year-old but Brown has high hopes for the seam bowler.

Brown said - 

“

It's nice to see a young player making their way in the game so the disappointment is that he has a niggle in his back but hopefully he will be back playing very shortly.

”

Meanwhile, Cricket Ireland have announced that Toby Radford, the former Middlesex and Sussex opening batsman is their new National Academy and Performance Manager.

He played only 14 first class games for the two counties between 1994 and 1997 but has enjoyed greater success in coaching where he headed the Middlesex Academy before becoming first team coach.

Radford then moved to the Caribbean to become director of the High Performance Centre in Barbados before becoming assistant coach of the West Indies in 2012.

He returned to his native Wales three years ago, taking over from Matthew Mott as coach of Glamorgan, a post he held until last December.

Former England international Chris Adams was appointed in May but turned it down two days' later.

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