By Jim Stokes BBC Sport

Kyle McCallan is Ireland's record cap holder

Ireland's record cap holder Kyle McCallan is confident that Ireland can return home from Namibia with the ICC Inter-Continental Cup later.

The 30-year-old all-rounder says that the Irish are well prepared to face the United Arab Emirates in the semi-finals in Windhoek on 23-25 October.

"We know plenty of the UAE having faced them in the summer," said McCallan who hopes to add to his 124 Irish caps.

"We did beat them, but it was close. If we win, we can then go all the way."

If Ireland do success they will probably come up against Kenya who are expected to see off shock semi-finalists Bermuda.

"To be honest, we know very little about Kenya, but we will probably need to be at our best, if we are to emulate Scotland's feat last season," Ireland's vice-captain told BBC Sport.

"We will study a lot of vidoes in our preparation in order to be ready for the challenge.

The Belfast schoolteacher, who made he international debut against Wales in 1995, believes that South African coach Adrian Birrell has been the mastermind to Ireland's progress over the past two seasons.

With virtually a professional regime in place, Birrell has guided his side to the 2007 ICC World Cup for the first time although they lost to Scotland in the recent Trophy final in Dublin.

"Adrian has brought in a tremendous attitude to cricket here. I've had the pleasure of playing under three professional coaches, but Adrian is a mixture of Mike Hendricks and Ken Rutherford.

"But he has also brought other different qualities with him and that have turned the fortunes of cricket here."

Hopefully I can come back an ICC Trophy winner name here

McCallan believes that under Birrell, Ireland have set certain, short-term goals and so far everything has worked out.

"Our motto for the ICC Trophy was no stone unturned, and it will be the same this month. Adrian will have us all in the right frame of mind," said the batsman, who can toss up tasty piece of off-break when needed.

"When we finished our home season and we have had a period of rest which was not a bad thing as it helped the boys to recharge their batteries.

"Since we have returned to training we have had two important weekend camps in Dublin which have gone extremely well.

"We will have a number of sessions when we get to Namibia and that will help us to acclimatise and ready to face the Emirates," said McCallan, who manages to squeeze in cricket .

"Everybody at school is really into their cricket right now. The Ashes series brought that out in a big way.

"The kids, and my fellow teachers, will be watching with interest on how things go in Africa and they will wallow in any failure.

"But hopefully I can come back an Inter-Continental Cup winner."