The Cricket Ireland Board met earlier this week in The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Shaw’s Bridge, Belfast where a wide range of issues were discussed with the following outcomes.
The Board approved the public release of Cricket Ireland’s first-ever organisational scorecard to enable internal and external stakeholders to track progress against its strategic objectives.
Commenting on this initiative, CI CEO Warren Deutrom said: “Our strategy isn’t just about the things we do, but how we do them. Through partnership with our Unions at Club Days, or taking our meetings around the country or live-streaming awards evenings or strategy launches, or even publishing the outcome of these meetings, we simply realised we needed to be more transparent about what we do.
“In the end, rather than a series of vague headlines tracking progress, we thought we’d try something a bit more radical and publish our operational plan, at the same time being transparent about the areas in which we’re making progress, and those we’re not. While there was some initial caution about being too open, the Board took the view that candour would assist the public in understanding what we do as an organisation, while it was also felt that honest self-appraisal was less likely if we painted too rosy a picture of ourselves.”
Encouraging progress was noted in the ongoing process of developing and resourcing the Provincial Unions – in particular the recruitment of General Managers currently in the inter-provincial competition to help grow the Unions’ organisations, operations and businesses. Warren Deutrom said: “We have said consistently that the Unions are one of the vital ingredients to Ireland becoming a nation worthy of Test cricket and, hopefully, ICC full membership. In fact, alongside our advocacy on the international stage, development of our provinces has been the most important strategic item on my desk over the last 12-18 months.
“On the back of the hard work the Unions are doing to re-shape their governance structures, administrative leadership will help bed down new structures, begin to relieve the burden on Union volunteers, grow the business side of inter-provincial cricket and, thereby, drive forward delivery to our clubs. We are grateful to both ICC and Sport NI for sharing our vision on this crucial area for Irish cricket’s growth, by making available funding specifically to recruit these positions.”
The Board also discussed the expansion of the Hanley Energy IP20 to include Munster in the 2017 competition. It was agreed to defer discussions on this matter to the early April meeting following the outcome of the 2016 audit process and when a number of other budgetary matters were hopefully clearer. In the meantime, management would continue to work with the Munster Cricket Union to ensure operations remained on track for their inclusion should that be the decision.
The Board confirmed Cricket Ireland would extend its charity partnership with the Lord’s Taverners for one more year in 2017, having previously agreed to an initial 2-year period. Warren Deutrom explained: “We were sympathetic to the fact that the adverse weather of the last couple of years had impaired the charity’s ability to raise funds around our major matches, so the Board agreed to an extension to assist the Lord’s Taverners to maximise its relationship with us.”
The Board received an update on staffing of the Shapoorji Pallonji Cricket Ireland National Academy, in particular confirmation of Peter Johnston as National Academy and Performance Manager.
CI Performance Director Richard Holdsworth said: “Peter moved over from the men’s team to an Acting Manager role three months ago and has immersed himself in the Academy. He’s been instrumental in setting up a new senior and emerging player programme with Ryan Eagleson. He is Ireland-based, has great knowledge of our fringe players and young talent coming through, and with 10 years’ experience with the senior team, understands what it takes to become an Irish international cricketer.”
It was also confirmed that one of Johnston's previous roles, as full-time Performance Analyst, would be taken by Scott Irvine, while Ben Smith and former Ireland all-rounder Andrew White would share assistant coach duties until the post is filled on a permanent basis.
CI Chairman Ross McCollum and CEO Warren Deutrom updated the Board on the recently-completed ICC meetings in Dubai, explaining the progress on discussions in relation to the proposed restructuring of international cricket and proposed developments in ICC governance. Mr McCollum said: “Progress as outlined by ICC following the recent meetings remains very encouraging. While we are cautiously optimistic in relation to the matters being discussed, we take nothing for granted and continue to hope that the structures as outlined, both on and off the field of play, can be sufficiently advanced to enable decisions to be made at the next set of meetings in April.”