A week after announcing the Ireland women's team have pulled out of Leinster men's cricket, Cricket Ireland Performance Director Richard Holdsworth has made it clear that the national body have big plans for the women's game. After seven clubs were left with empty grounds following the decision not to play in Division 8 this season, what most people have asked is, what will fill the void?
In what will be the busiest summer for Ireland's women ever, 2012 fixtures will include competing in an enhanced ECB County Championship (with a minimum of eight games - up from four in 2011), the ECB T20 Cup, several T20 Internationals against full members to be played in the UK, and an ODI and T20 International series in Ireland.
Women's captain Isobel Joyce admits it is pity the decision not to take part in the league was made so late. "We were aware that it was getting very late to make the decision but it couldn't be helped. Most of our international fixtures have only just been finalised and making the decision not to play in the mens league earlier would have been premature. Hopefully all of the affected clubs can fill their grounds with cup fixtures or refixed matches and they may find it a blessing to have a day free in the season."
Cricket Ireland have not yet announced who Ireland will play in the ODI and T20 International series in Ireland, but when the Netherlands dropped outside the top 10 in the ICC rankings in November 2011 it became clear that the status quo was no longer going to cut it.
"In the past few years we have relied heavily on annual fixtures against the Netherlands to fill our quota of ODI and T20 games every year," admits Joyce. "We usually play them a number of times each summer, that way avoiding spending money to tour one of the other countries close in rank to us like Pakistan or Sri Lanka. But that just can't happen any more, we have to find another way to get our games played and who knows? It could be the best thing for us."
A busy summer is not the only change for the women. Aiming to bring things into line with the men, a new structure is being put in place that will demonstrate a clear pathway from provincial age groups into the senior national team. The framework will also give key indicators for players, coaches and selectors to aid development and selection.
The Pathway that Cricket Ireland has laid out incorporates three phases:
Senior: Established international players with a high degree of understanding of their own skill sets who will benefit from specific development in key areas to ensure regular high class performance.
Performance: High potential players who require further development of core skills but have previously represented Ireland and Province at senior and age group levels.
Emerging Player Programme: Players aged from 13 to 17 years who have demonstrated good performance at or above their own age group and exhibit and a dedication and ambition to perform at the highest level.
Holdsworth added: “Senior women’s coach Jeremy Bray will head up the senior programme, while part-time women’s performance coach Nigel Pyne leads the performance and emerging players programme with Jeremy assisting.
“Both coaches have huge experience and I am confident these programmes will give the players a great opportunity to improve and allow the Ireland women’s team to reach their target of seventh in the global rankings by 2015."