GER SIGGINS: Following Ireland’s latest flop on the world stage – and with a growing list of internal and external problems – here is my SEVEN-POINT PLAN to rescue Irish cricket

TOMORROW week, Sarah Keane will finally settle into her work as chief executive of Cricket Ireland. Having been appointed in October, the former Swim Ireland CEO has been working a couple of days a week in Kinsealy since Christmas and by now should be fully aware of the scale of the task that confronts her.

She will have watched an unprecedentedly busy month of action which saw the women’s senior side qualify for the World Cup this summer, but also saw the senior and Under–19 men’s sides return from their World Cups with just one win apiece, against Oman and Japan respectively.

Off the field, there are problems, not least in funding a sport that plays very few home games and is still without a proper stadium. CI relies heavily on subventions from the International Cricket Council of around €13m per annum, but the indications are that its next TV rights deal will be reduced, fuelling expectations of a drop in funding in 2028 that has been reported to be as high as 38%.

Spending cuts are inevitable — the annual awards dinner has already been put on hold — so there are caveats about many of the aspirations below. But Keane has an impressive track record, bringing a much less wealthy organisation to a position where it could deliver three Olympic medals.

So, with a heavily stacked in–tray, the Irish Mail on Sunday identifies seven areas the chief executive must address to get Irish cricket back on track.

1 TACKLE THE BLOATED SENIOR MANAGEMENT LEVEL

TWENTY years ago, Warren Deutrom took over as CEO at the Irish Cricket Union, a body without an office, and one other employee, a secretary who worked one day per week.

In two decades, he drove the change of name to Cricket Ireland, the professionalisation of the senior teams, a revival of interprovincials, the accession to full membership of ICC, the arrival of the senior men’s team to Test cricket, and first steps towards building a national stadium.

It was an impressive revolution, but some poor decisions have led the body to a position where it cannot afford to play internationals at home.

As Deutrom and his board’s ambitions grew, so did the organisation. According to its website, it has a ‘Senior Leadership Team’ (SLT) of eight, 22 more in administration and 13 coaches and support staff around the national teams.

According to insiders, the SLT members’ pay packages average around €160,000 each, with doubts regularly voiced about the value for money from some.

And even with a large leadership team, CI has called in outside consultants for advice.

On several occasions after poor performances at tournaments, stakeholders were quizzed at great expense on what should be done – and their suggestions mostly ignored.

Arguably the biggest waste of money at SLT level over the past two years came with the ludicrous situation where two men filled the High Performance area, Graeme West as manager and Richard Holdsworth as director, due to an unwillingness to bite the bullet on the part of Deutrom.

Keane’s need to find cuts in this area has been helped by the recent exit of Holdsworth and facilities director Richard Fahey.

She could also find savings in the Participation budget, the department that introduces children to the game, duplicating what clubs and unions already do. Devolving responsibility around the provinces would be a better use of the €1.2million+ budget allocated to this department.

2 GET THE MEN’S SENIOR TEAM BACK WINNING

LAST week, the senior men’s team’s T20 World Cup campaign in Sri Lanka ended once again at the pool stage, as it has 10 times out of the 11 they have qualified for global tournaments since the Golden Age team of 2007–11 started to break up.

It is more than a decade since they qualified for the 50 overs World Cup, the format that best suits Irish sides.

The current head coach, Heinrich Malan, was granted a contract extension up to World Cup 2027, but failure to qualify will likely mean an early departure.

Ireland will need to be in the top eight (excluding hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe) of the World Rankings next March to qualify automatically.

As they are currently 12th and unlikely to unseat the sides above them — Bangladesh, West Indies and England — they will have to take their chances in a qualifying tournament.

One of the strangest things about the Irish squad that made the international breakthrough in 2007 is how many of them have had to look abroad to find a living within the game.

At the recent T20 World Cup Kevin O’Brien was batting coach to the Italy team that had some excellent results, while John Mooney was with Afghanistan as fielding coach, a role Ireland must have regretted not filling when more than 10 catches were dropped. Last week, Mailsport revealed that Ed Joyce would be joining Gloucestershire as batting consultant. Our greatest–ever batsman (left) was head coach of Ireland’s women’s side for 5½ years until last April but CI has failed to find a role for him around the underperforming men’s senior side.

A coaching set up built around the globally–respected Joyce, and including Mooney, O’Brien and current spin guru Chris Brown would energise a playing squad and an Irish public that has fallen out of love with the side. And whenever the money is there, get Niall O’Brien on board as Director of Cricket, an important role in other international teams.

A reorganisation would dovetail well with three more of the Boys of Sabina Park who are coaching interprovincial sides: Boyd Rankin (North–West), Jeremy Bray (Munster) and Andre Botha (Leinster).

It would also balance the widespread perception that the Ireland squad selection has a heavy bias towards the Northern Cricket Union. Most of the contentious calls in recent years have benefited players from that region, despite Leinster’s complete dominance of interprovincial competition — Lightning have won 25 IPs since their revival, the other three unions eight titles between them.

Joyce, Mooney and O’Brien are probably Ireland’s best–known cricketers too, and could spearhead a promotional drive, in contrast to Malan who has rarely engaged with public, clubs or media. The players, and coaches too, should be used more to heal the rift with grassroots, making ambassadorial visits to clubs and summer camps. And of course, the team will get better if they play more. Much more.

3 PLAY MORE CRICKET – AND PLAY IT AT HOME

‘THERE’S not much point giving out contracts for a couple of games and nets in North County’, one current international said recently.

Playing less cricket is not the way to heal the disconnect with fans. The numbers are alarming — there were more senior men games played in 2023 than in 2024 and 2025 put together.

There were 39 games in 2019, and post–covid we saw 29, 33 and 40 annually before the fixtures dried up, with just 21 and 18 in the past two years.

It led to the bizarre situation where the red–ball captain, Andy Balbirnie, who no longer plays T20, saw his international season end on May 25 last year.

Cricket Ireland has a historic responsibility to spread fixtures throughout the island and the four international venues at Clontarf, Malahide, Bready and Stormont.

But to save money on building pop–up stadia, CI began playing ‘home’ fixtures abroad in 2022. Since then, Ireland have hosted sides in Bristol, Chelmsford and Abu Dhabi – there have been more ‘home’ games played outside the island than in Bready in the last decade.

The interpro set-up needs to be examined heading into the seventh season without three-day games. The competitions need a lot more love, and promotion, to rekindle public and player interest.

4 USE THE WOMEN’S TEAM TO SPEARHEAD A PROMOTION DRIVE

IRELAND Women have qualified for the World Cup to be held in England in June. While their fixtures have yet to be announced, there will likely be plenty of interest in a vibrant young side.

Keane should ensure they get a good belt of the promotional budget, built around three genuinely world class players in captain Gaby Lewis, Orla Prendergast and Amy Hunter and several others with the potential to join them.

A well–marketed series of home warm–up games in early June would pay dividends, and help attract some positive media coverage.

5 GET THE PATHWAYS SYSTEM RIGHT

‘THERE’S got to be more funding for the pathways’, one former international pleaded to me this weekend, pointing to the failure of the Under–19 side and the gulf between that level and international cricket.

The budget for the pathways system has been squeezed badly, especially since the 10 years of payments ran out on the academy funded by Indian billionaire Shapoorji Pallonji.

‘I’m genuinely terrified about what happens after the next wave of retirements,’ said another.

Paul Stirling, Andrew Balbirnie, Craig Young and Graham Hume are all 35, George Dockrell and Barry McCarthy 33, meaning a huge vacuum will open in the next couple of years. The talent to replace them is not yet obvious.

The easy solution in recent years has been to cast the net wide, enticing cricketers from South Africa for whom opportunities have been reduced at home by positive discrimination policies.

Since the start of 2023, Ireland have handed new caps to 13 players, of whom only five came through the Irish system, Stephen Doheny, Matthew Humphries, Gavin Hoey, Ross Adair and Tim Tector. Some of the others have Irish grannies but others were fly–by–nights — two taking prized Test caps and disappearing rapidly.

So far, more Ireland Test cricketers have been born in Cape Town than Belfast.

There’s no sign of that drying up either — the interpros were designed to provide a pathway to the Ireland team, but of the 75 men who played for the four unions last summer, less than half were born here.

Once players are identified, they should be encouraged more to make a career in the game, aiding them in pursuing education while playing. Some of the savings made from culling the SLT could be diverted into scholarship packages for youngsters to develop their cricket and life skills.

One ex–player pointed to Trinity, which has one of the finest grounds in the country — CI could place a dozen players in the college and ensure they get specialist CI coaching and fixtures against provincial ‘A’ teams.

6 SCRUTINISE THE VALUE OF THE ETPL

THE European T20 Premier League has long been a standing joke in world cricket. Launched in 2019, it has promised the sun, moon and stars every year since but has yet to see a ball bowled. Last year a Bollywood star, Abishek Bachchan, came on board and made a whistlestop tour of Dublin to ‘launch’ the 2025 event, which was cancelled weeks before its scheduled start.

In several of the seasons Ireland’s international programme was truncated to free up dates for the league that never happened, fuelling public cynicism and declining interest in the game.

Warren Deutrom was appointed CEO of ETPL shortly after he left CI last year, giving hope to those who wish the league well, and it recently secured some big name Australian front men and Indian investors.

Whether it all will ever have a positive effect on Irish cricket is another story, and Keane will need to take a close look at the relationship between CI and ETPL, and whether it is appropriate that her chairman is also chair of the new league, with her chief financial officer also on its board.

7 GET THE NEW STADIUM IN ABBOTSTOWN RIGHT

THE first sod on the new facility at Abbotstown will be turned next month, and the stadium has to be ready to stage 10–15 games at the 2030 World Cup which Ireland co–hosts with England.

The square will need to be laid by September, to allow for the three years bedding–in it is estimated to need to be ready to stage games in 2029.

There is plenty to occupy Keane with the surrounding infrastructure, transport links, and ensuring the Irish public turns up to support the event.

Giving one of the oldest Irish sports a home at last is an exciting prospect.

At this important juncture for the sport, Sarah Keane could be just what cricket needs.

In her time with Swim Ireland and the Olympic Council, Keane has shown great commitment and innovation, skills that she will need in abundance to get Irish cricket buzzing again.