More senior departures at Cricket Ireland
Elaine Nolan, director of growth and strategy, the latest senior figure to leave Irish cricket's governing body
Cricket Ireland’s recent employee movement has continued with the departure of Elaine Nolan, director of growth and strategy.
Nolan becomes the latest high-ranked figure to leave the organisation, marking the fifth member of CI’s senior leadership team to depart in the last 12 months.
Nolan, who played four times for Ireland, joined CI in 2017 after a stint in New Zealand. There, she worked in a variety of roles for the Hamilton Junior Cricket Association, Northern Districts and New Zealand Cricket itself.
She joined Cricket Ireland in 2017 and worked as the company’s participation director before her most recent role of director of growth and strategy.
It is understood that Nolan has departed CI with immediate effect.
Five senior employees have left Cricket Ireland since last summer, with some filling positions at other companies. Former CEO Warren Deutrom was the first (he now works with the ETPL), before head of facilities Richard Fahey departed to take up a role as Hockey Ireland’s CEO in February.
Richard Holdsworth, the former head of high performance who then served as director of cricket after the arrival of Graeme West, left Cricket Ireland in early 2026. Holdsworth recently announced the establishment of his own consulting business.
According to her LinkedIn page, CI’s former director of people and culture Sarah Kenny left in April of this year and started working with PCI Pharma Services.
The vacant CEO position was filled by Sarah Keane but it is unlikely that replacements will be hired for Fahey and Holdsworth. Kenny’s HR position was filled by Patrick Byrne, who has a cricket background with The Hills CC and is now chief people officer at CI.
It is at this stage unclear if CI plans to hire a new figure for Nolan’s former roles of participation, growth and strategy or if these responsibilities will be assumed by other members of staff.
According to the most recent CI accounts, nine people made up the organisation’s senior leadership team in 2025. At present, the updated CI website lists six individuals among the leadership group, including Nolan. The remaining five are Keane the CEO, Andrew May the chief financial officer, Byrne as chief people officer, West as director of high performance and Craig Easdown as media and communications manager.
While the circumstances of Nolan’s departure have not been shared, departures from the company have been expected. In media appearances, CI leadership acknowledged public criticism of the number of staff relative to the volume of high performance cricket hosted in Ireland as legitimate concerns.
There has been a wider employee restructuring process ongoing within Cricket Ireland, as shown by figures published in their accounts for 2025. Last year, CI spent €268,000 on one-off restructuring costs. Included in this figure was €181,000 listed under key management. Cricket Ireland has acknowledged that a redundancy payment was made and that there were multiple staff departures. Employees below the senior leadership team also left CI in 2025. These accounts only relate to changes made in the last calendar year.
There is no detail within the financial declaration on who received any redundancy payments, and CI declined to go into specifics citing confidentiality and GDPR concerns.
In relation to Nolan’s departure, CI said the following via a spokesman: “Cricket Ireland has been going through a wide-ranging business operating review since mid-2025, with the aim of ensuring the organisation is fit-for-purpose in delivering on our vision to grow the game across Ireland.
“During her time with the organisation, Elaine has made a significant contribution to the game - working closely with the Provincial Unions and wider cricket community on a range of strategic priorities, including the development of participation programmes (such as Smash It and It's Wicket!), growing the visibility and enabling greater resourcing in the all-Ireland club cup competitions and the youth all-Irelands, and guiding important EDI work across the sport.
“We are grateful for Elaine's commitment, leadership and contribution to Cricket Ireland and the wider game, and we wish her every success for the future.
“Further details and, indeed, our future plans will be communicated over coming months as we work through the restructure, and I look forward to talking with you at a future date to go through this in more detail.”