Irish cricket has been given an early Christmas pressie with the news that fast bowler Boyd Rankin is returning to play international cricket for the country of his birth.
The 31-year-old made the last of his 82 appearances for Ireland during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, before making the switch to England.
Rankin met last week with Cricket Ireland to seal the deal which will see him available for Ireland's upcoming ICC InterContinental Cup clash with Papua New Guinea in Australia and the ICC World Twenty20 in India in March.
"I'm delighted to be returning to Irish cricket, where I was born and learned the game," said the County Tyrone native.
"I'll always be grateful to England for the chance to play Test cricket, but with little opportunities in the last two years, I felt it was time to move on at this stage of my career."
There's been a few changes since Rankin departed with all-rounder John Mooney retiring and head coach Phil Simmons taking the top job with his native West Indies.
The new Ireland head coach John Bracewell has been tasked with taking the Irish team to test level status and Rankin is eager to be a part of what will be an exciting few years for the sport in this country.
"There's a real opportunity for Ireland to get Test status now, and that prospect was a real lure for me - I'd love to be part of history.
"Before that of course there's a T20 World Cup in India - I've played in three before with Ireland and it'd be great to make it four.
"I've also very happy memories of both the 2007 and 2011 50 over World Cups in the West Indies and India, and I'd like to make it a hat-trick of appearances in 2019 in England."
Ireland play Papua New Guinea in Townsville, Australia in the 3rd round of the InterContinental Cup from January 31st to February 3rd.
They are currently top of the table with a maximum 40 points from their wins against the UAE and Namibia.
They have been drawn in Group A along with the Netherlands, Oman and Bangladesh in round one of the ICC World Twenty20 which gets under way in India in March.
If they win the group they will proceed to the Super Ten phase where they will play India, Pakistan, New Zealand and Australia.
