LAST Saturday morning a brown envelope embossed with a harp dropped through a letterbox in London.

Inside was a letter congratulating the addressee on his new status as an Irish citizen.

That letter could prove priceless to Irish cricket if the man who received it, Tim Murtagh, joins the team in its quest for the Twenty20 World Cup.

"It's something I should have done a long time ago", says the Middlesex all-rounder, who was 30 in August.

"My uncle and dad have been joking about it for years."

Murtagh – who took 80 wickets in 15 championship games last summer – can be added to the Ireland squad for the Dubai qualifier if his passport application is processed by 12th February. He has been assured by the Passport Office that there should be no problem.

Murtagh qualifies through his grandad: "I was very close to my Irish grandfather, Francis Vincent Murtagh, who died about five years ago."

A couples' weekend away last winter started the ball rolling.

"In the pub Ed Joyce started quizzing me on my Irish roots and he reckoned I qualified for Ireland.

"He made a couple of calls and then (performance director) Mark Garaway checked me out.

"I had to chase down lots of original birth, marriage and death certificates before I applied in October."

Murtagh also had a frank chat with coach Phil Simmons.

"Middlesex director of cricket Angus Fraser drove me up to Loughborough to meet Phil just before Christmas.

"He said he'd like me to part of the team but he wouldn't make any guarantees, which is fair enough.

"He's a good man – I think I played against him at the tail-end of his career with Leicestershire."

The 6'2" seamer also knows most of his new squad-mates from the county circuit.

"We've a very strong Irish element at Middlesex, with Paul Stirling, Eoin Morgan, Andy Balbirnie and the Poynters.

"I know Gary Wilson well too, we play a lot of golf together."

Murtagh has played twice against Ireland – in 2006 for Surrey when the match was ruined by Belfast rain, and the following season for Middlesex at Clontarf. He took 1-38 and a catch to dismiss Kevin O'Brien.

His brother Chris, 27, also played county cricket for Surrey, for whom their Dad played at 2nd XI level. Dublin-born uncle Andy played for Hampshire in the 1970s.

Tim played for England U19s in the 2000 World Cup, when Andrew White, Niall O'Brien and John Mooney were in the Irish team, but the sides never met.

That tournament was held in Sri Lanka, also the venue for this year's World Twenty20.

Murtagh is just back from Thailand where he honeymooned after his 28th December wedding.

And with Trent Johnston signaling that he will retire at the end of the year, there could be plenty more long-haul travelling for the newest Irishman.