Warren Deutrom resigns, why now?

One of the most significant days in Cricket Ireland's history was also one of its most surprising

Warren Deutrom will step down as CEO in August. 📸: Cricket Ireland

“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain” - Harvey Dent (The Dark Knight, 2008).

Hindsight is everything.

Last month, while the West Indies were in Clontarf, a Cricket Ireland employee vented their frustration. It had been another difficult start to the summer. The limited international fixture list had led to a public outcry. News of the European T20 Premier League’s postponement had already become common knowledge, even if official confirmation had not yet arrived.

The board, the body which oversees the CEO and his staff, was under pressure. Public opinion created a narrative that, either due to personal relationships or the limited experience of certain directors, they had little ability to hold Cricket Ireland’s everyday figures to account. The organisation, led by CEO Warren Deutrom, was dealing with regular disappointments with few consequences.

This theory is not new. Many ex-members of the board have privately revealed their exasperation at how legitimate questioning would be negatively received. Publicly, though, those currently in situ have remained supportive. “Absolutely,” responded Brian MacNeice, chair of the board, when asked if he still had confidence in Deutrom at last year’s AGM.

This time, the disgruntled CI figure did nothing to quieten concerns. I had my own frustrations at Deutrom’s lack of willingness to sit down for an interview (something which is probably explained by Thursday’s announcement of his resignation). Whatever about securing public accountability through the press, this individual said doing so at board level was proving tricky.

At that point, alarm bells should have been ringing. Things must not be great if they were saying the quiet part out loud. Sure enough, just over a month later, Deutrom had tendered his resignation after 19 years at the helm. Despite the warning, this was difficult to foresee. People have been moaning about accountability in the halls of CI for years.

After all the statements and platitudes, we are left with two questions:

Why now?

Did Deutrom walk or was he pushed?

Finding a straightforward answer remains tricky. One person involved has described the situation as “more nuanced” than either end of the departure spectrum.

Initially, the widespread response of the Irish cricket community was that Deutrom was pushed. There was a sense that he saw multiple projects as his to finish, including the building of a stadium at Abbotstown, the launching of the ETPL and the hosting of the 2030 T20 World Cup.

Deutrom himself did nothing to debunk such theories. Appearing on The Final Word podcast last spring, he pointed to a number of opportunities in the next four to five years. “Why would I move?”

Just over 12 months on, everyone else is trying to answer that same question.

Multiple figures with knowledge of discussions have confirmed that Deutrom initiated the conversation around leaving. He tendered his resignation to MacNeice, his boss, a few weeks ago. On Wednesday, the board was informed of his departure.

Yet it doesn’t seem quite as straightforward as an individual upping sticks and leaving. The board didn’t seem overly surprised at Deutrom’s decision, and they did not ask him to reconsider.

Over the last year, board scrutiny has shown signs of action. Initially, Cricket Ireland’s high performance department was the subject of questioning. The infamous review following the 2021 T20 World Cup defeat to Namibia did not reflect well. The difficult 2023 World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe also prompted tricky conversations.

The board wanted change. Deutrom’s appetite to implement wasn’t as strong. Multiple pushes came. Eventually, a new appointment was made, Graeme West coming in as director of high performance. He was, at the time, said to be responsible for high performance strategy, suggesting Richard Holdsworth, the previous head of that department, would be moving sideways, if not into a more junior operations role. His new title is director of cricket. (A number of months into the new arrangement, two sources with knowledge of CI’s high performance department have said there is little clarity on the job specs of either man.)

The recruitment which ultimately resulted in West’s arrival was announced in June 2024. Even before then, attention turned towards the performance of the CEO.

That the preceding months were nothing short of a PR disaster for Cricket Ireland would not have helped Deutrom. First, news that a proposed series to host Australia was set to be cancelled was accidentally given to a journalist by CI’s head of high performance. Upon confirmation, it also emerged that home games vs South Africa would be played in the UAE while the Euro Slam was off the table in 2024.

Then word got out that CI had bought two new company Teslas for senior staff, Deutrom included. The response of a cricketing public frustrated by the Australia cuts was inevitable. A few weeks later, Deutrom acknowledged asking Dave Richardson, his former superior as the ex-ICC CEO, to put himself forward to sit on the board. More questions about accountability, on Deutrom suggesting names for the body to which he is answerable, cropped up.

That is before you get to the protracted negotiations with players on the 2024 central contracts. Seeking pay rises and a promise that future salaries would increase as CI’s revenue grew, male players rejected a round of offers. The news broke on the eve of rare home games against Pakistan, though discussions concluded fruitfully by series end.

Those matches served as a warm-up for the T20 World Cup in America, a fortnight which reflected poorly on Irish cricket. Granted, Ireland were treated shoddily by the ICC at that tournament, and the poor facilities and weather worked against them. In previous years, on-field success distracted from problems away from cricket. CI did not have that luxury this time around.

Especially when, on the same day that Ireland were knocked out of the World Cup by the Florida rain, Cricket Scotland (CS) announced that they would take their place in hosting Australia. This after CS had thought they managed to organise their own T10 franchise competition instead of hanging around waiting for the Euro Slam/ETPL. The T10, though, never took place.

2025, by comparison, brought fewer tricky headlines. But the manner in which a home Test against Afghanistan was cancelled with little explanation did nothing to ease public sentiment. Just 44 words were used to reference the wiping out of an all-format series in a press release which labelled Ireland’s home schedule as “world class.” One player called it “waffle”. The announcement of the schedule, nine days of international men’s cricket across five months, eight for the women, already came later than expected.

The mood music across the island was already poor, then this publication reported that the ETPL would not take place in its originally scheduled window. It took CI six weeks to confirm things had been pushed back until 2026, a vacuum which was quickly filled by ridicule.

All of which deals with the headline negativity. Behind the scenes, there were delays in backfilling pay rises and bonuses promised to players during last year’s negotiations. In 2024, a pair of budgetary forecasts proved to be mistaken; a hope that the ICC would release additional money as part of its increased funding package (CI were left feeling misled by the ICC afterwards), while the cost of hosing South Africa in the UAE rose by a six-figure sum. This year, according to the Irish Daily Mail, the board was told that the ETPL postponement left a €700,000 hole in the budget.

Through all the negativity, both on social media and in traditional outlets, one simple question dominated: two years into this cycle, where is Cricket Ireland spending its increased ICC money? Deutrom needed to provide an answer.

It wasn’t on fixtures. Across men and women, Ireland is playing fewer international games now compared to both 2022 and 2021. The board agrees with the public: more can be done from a cricketing standpoint with the money CI has as its disposal. The question of what is the purpose of CI as an entity, if not to host cricket, has cut through.

Over the last 18 months, internal scrutiny on the CEO started to increase. According to some involved, Deutrom has not always responded accordingly. It is an inevitable by-product of being in the job for as long as he has - 19 years - that questioning decisions and changing behaviour becomes more difficult. Multiple board figures have described such a lengthy tenure as unhealthy for any organisation.

Deutrom did not respond to an interview request for this article.

All involved, speaking both publicly and privately, are keen to stress Deutrom’s positive impact on Irish cricket. Since he took over in 2006, a previously ramshackle, amateur organisation has achieved Test status, become a rare Irish sport to professionalise its women’s team, earned government backing for a stadium and has been named a World Cup host. During the push for ICC full membership, Jarrod Kimber, one of the sport’s more prominent journalists, labelled Deutrom “one of the most intelligent people working in cricket.”

The campaign for Test status needed strong PR, honing in on the importance of rewarding World Cup heroes named O’Brien, Porterfield, Joyce et al with the honour of five day cricket. It needed a good frontman. Step forward, Deutrom. What came next required more substance, an ability to think through the challenges of sitting amongst proper full members while armed only with associate-levels funding and infrastructure.

Eight years into that project, no one is happy. The job has taken a toll on Deutrom. The board is dissatisfied, even accounting for all the hindrances beyond the control of the CEO. An overhaul of how business is done in the CI offices is expected. This wasn’t the catalyst for Deutrom’s departure, but all parties acknowledge that fresh leadership is no bad thing once change comes.

There is no questioning how much Deutrom cared for Irish cricket. Tears were shed when he announced his decision to staff on Thursday.

Deutrom also provided an emergency loan of €100,000 of his own money, saving CI from catastrophic cash flow issues in 2019. But it caused some to question why a cash-strapped organisation was paying one individual to the extent they could afford such a move. Given John Delaney did something similar with the FAI that same year, inevitable, mostly unfair comparisons started to be drawn. After Delaney’s downfall, Deutrom has been sensitive to these ever since.

That year was the start of Ireland’s red ball hiatus. They didn’t play a Test match between then and 2023. They still don’t have a regular domestic First Class competition, the last multi-day interpro game taking place six years ago.

Then came the post-Covid struggles. The increased ICC money of 2024 presented a new dawn, only for a spate of gaffes to kick off a never-ending negative news cycle. Even word that the government had okayed a 4,000 seater stadium at Abbotstown, announced last summer, couldn’t turn the tide of public opinion. CI were late to confirm the news, missing out on arguably the biggest achievement of their CEO’s near 20-year tenure.

For many, Deutrom’s position has been untenable for some time. One former CI employee states that change should have happened “seven or eight years ago.” It is noteworthy that, while plenty have praised the outgoing CEO for his contribution for Irish cricket, no one has expressed sadness at this being the wrong outcome.

Deutrom departs at the end of August and there almost certainly won’t be a permanent successor in position by then. According to one figure on his staff call, the soon-to-be ex-CEO spoke of his desire to stay on as chair of the ETPL. CI sources declined to say if his departure included a remuneration package. Some onlookers have questioned if Deutrom has lined up a new job but there are no indications of such a move.

For Cricket Ireland, what happens next is critical for the future of our sport. While Abbotstown and hosting the World Cup present long term goals, the next three/four years are crucial to guarantee Irish cricket will be in a healthy position once these come around. The medium term is a concern, and the belief that more cricket can be played with the currently available resources has made its way to board level.

Deutrom departs with a complicated legacy. He has undoubtedly been a net positive for Irish cricket, but the post-Covid years have been damaging. Enduring critics is inevitable in a high profile position. Staying for close to 20 years further embitters cynical onlookers.

When he arrived, Deutrom was the hero Ireland needed. An ex-ICC employee with the required knowledge of the world game to take the country to the upper echelons of the sport. Once there, something different was required. Deutrom gave it his best but ultimately, in the eyes of many, he stuck around long enough see himself become the villain.