Why does Irish cricket have a new boss?
Inside the decision to have Graeme West take over from Richard Holdsworth as the man responsible for all of Cricket Ireland's high performance strategy
Irish cricket has a new overlord.
Enter Graeme West, the Londoner currently under the employ of the West Indies. Next month, he will take over as the man responsible for all of Irish cricket’s high performance strategy.
After nearly 13 years, current high performance director Richard Holdsworth will no longer call the shots when it comes to Ireland’s on-field product. For the first time since 2011, the department responsible for professional cricket on this island has seen a significant personnel change.
Why make this move now? Holdsworth isn’t being shunted aside completely. He is moving into a newly created director of cricket role, still on Cricket Ireland’s payroll. Is this move a demotion, or merely a division of labour to ensure workloads are more manageable?
The answer is likely a bit of both. Since joining after the memorable 2011 World Cup campaign, Holdsworth has been in his current role for just under 13 years, a long time for any job, let alone elite sport. Stay in any senior position for long enough and you earn external detractors as well as admirers. In recent years, criticism has become more stringent within Cricket Ireland itself. Twice in the previous 18 months, the high performance department has been criticised at board level.
Senior Cricket Ireland management - the chair and CEO - are said to be in agreement with the board that the time is right for fresh ideas, even if, as an operational matter, West’s hiring did not require board sign-off. Holdsworth too is said by officials to be in agreement. He isn’t, after all, being turfed out completely. If this move truly is the expressing of dissatisfaction many of Holdsworth’s detractors claim, why keep him handing him a paycheque?
As well as the desire for change, the other key aspect of this move is timing. Cricket Ireland is infamously fond of a review. On countless occasions, most memorably when former head coach Adi Birrell led the Portas escapade following the 2021 World Cup defeat to Namibia, the board has been advised to split up the role of the high performance director. Organising fixtures, looking after development pathways, hiring coaches and handing out player contracts - amidst a litany of other tasks - is too much for one individual to handle.
Now, armed with significantly more ICC money after this year’s funding increase, Cricket Ireland is in a position to take on another expensive high performance salary, likely to be in the six-figure range.
The potential pitfalls of the move centre around familiar criticism for Cricket Ireland. When walking around club boundaries, chatting to those involved in Irish cricket, one of most frequent gripes spoken of CEO Warren Deutrom is his desire to turn Cricket Ireland into a lite version of the England Cricket Board. There, until recently, the ECB’s high performance department divided up tasks between Mo Bobat and Rob Key.
The chatter from Deutrom himself about bringing in more high performance staff is that the move makes Ireland look a proper full member, more professional. A counter would be that copying other full members fails to take account of the nuances of Irish cricket. The merits of adding another high performance salary in the same year that Ireland cut the visit of Australia from the schedule - despite receiving more ICC money - is a legitimate source of questioning.
The new chain of command also warrants investigation. The simplest way of conceptualising this new structure is that West is responsible for strategising while Holdsworth is in an operations role which involves implementing said strategy. West decides who gets a contract, Holdsworth facilitates signing on the dotted line.
While Cricket Ireland has not labelled the move a demotion, this creates a clear hierarchy. Plenty point to the potential awkwardness of West, new to the organisation, directing the man who held plenty of his responsibilities for the previous 13 years. How easy will it be for Holdsworth to implement strategic decisions which contradict an initiative he implemented? It remains to be seen exactly how their working dynamic will operate. Who reports to who? Will Holdsworth be answerable to West or CEO Deutrom? Or both?
As for West, he comes with credentials which are both promising and less than inspiring - but predominantly the former. He arrives from the West Indies, meaning he does at least have experience of working for a cash-strapped board which lacks the trust of much of the public due to a questionable corporate governance history.
West has been in situ in the Caribbean since 2012. In 2016, he led their U19s side to a World Cup title. When asked how he was to work with, one member of that team offered a ringing endorsement of West as a character.
After looking after the U19s and the A-team, West moved into his current role of high performance manager. Essentially, he oversaw the development of players for professional cricket, restructuring academy programmes and introducing sports science initiatives. A number of those changes have been fruitful. The West Indies U23 side - which Ireland have played twice this year - competes in the Caribbean’s version of the interpros. West has come up with ways to give young players more high level cricket as they transition from U19s to the senior international side. Ireland’s current pathway staff have long grappled with this problem.
At the same time, the West Indies are still the West Indies. Their talent development isn’t leading to the international results of previous years. You would suspect that West might put this down to the inability to pay players enough to keep them away from franchise cricket.
Before moving to the Caribbean, West, originally from north London, was the academy manager at Middlesex. There, his work can probably be looked at more critically. Middlesex does not have a stellar record of producing top end talent in recent years. Given he hasn’t been at the county since 2012, though, it’s difficult to say how much of a role West played in that drought.
Ultimately, West is moving from the beaches of Antigua to Dublin in the winter, from one country with decent cricketing facilities to another with hardly any. Why? Perhaps the departure of West Indies CEO Johnny Grave is significant. Maybe West is getting a pay rise. Or maybe the Cricket Ireland job, having the buck stop with you when it comes to the performance of a full member nation, is a case of an ambitious individual taking on more responsibility.
When he starts in October, a number of important items will be on West’s to-do list. The interpros have lost the imagination of both the public and the players. Will regular first-class cricket soon return? Recent comments from both Holdsworth and Deutrom suggest more men’s fixtures which are on the future tours programme may well not take place next year. Emerging Ireland and the Wolves still require more games, as do the equivalent female teams. After the recent protracted contract negotiations, trust from a number of players needs to be rebuilt. Ed Joyce, whose own deal expires early next year, should be extended once again, such is the success of the women’s team.
Managing Irish cricket, with all its problems, is a thankless task. He who wears the crown often gets beaten with it by a frustrated fan base. New to the country, West needs to familiarise himself with the intricacies of the sport on the ground in Dublin, Belfast, Derry, Cork and beyond. For now, he deserves our patience.
Ultimately, though, given the timing and nature of this move, it won’t be long until West is subjected to the same scrutiny as his predecessor.