Tuesday November 30, 2010

This is my first post as Irish Women’s Coach, I have been working since the end of the Europeans in August in an interim position, and after a tough interview, I was delighted to be asked to take up the position. Myself or Ciara Metcalfe (Irish Captain) will be keeping you up-to-date with the latest developments in Irish Women’s Cricket, we plan to be going places, so hopefully you’ll be getting regular positive updates!

We’ve had a month to reflect since the ICC Women’s Challenge and certainly the snow that has come down in the last few days serves as a serious reminder we are no longer in South Africa. Overall, the results themselves were maybe not a surprise to those outside the senior squad, but a real disappointment to those within it. A winning, professional culture is being created and to underpin that we now have a group of Irish Women committed to achieving something special for their country.

As I’m sure you all know, the girls worked extremely hard in the lead up to the tournament, two 6.30 am fitness sessions a week before work and school being a prime example. We had got together and re-visited the team and personal goals before the tournament, and this has given us all a new focus. There were some brilliant individual performances in South Africa, particularly Clare Shillington, Isobel and Cecelia Joyce all scoring half-centuries in the ODI event, and Nikki Symmons scoring 86 in 48 balls in the T20. With the ball, Laura Delany (photo, right) was terrific throughout the tournament, she was well supported by Louise McCarthy and Ciara Metcalfe.

Although I have only mentioned a few names, there is great potential in the squad – three of the regular starters are 17 and under, which bodes well. Hopefully we can build on the bond created and develop everyone’s game to meet with the demands of the next year.

In November 2011, there is a World Cup Qualification tournament, where the top 3 qualify for the World T20s in 2012, and the 4th place joins them for the ODI World Cup in 2013. As you can see it is a huge year for Irish Women’s Cricket – and the girls have committed to a year long programme that will run alongside their other commitments, some as mothers, work, school, exams, hockey and the rest!!!

The girls are desperate to do well individually and collectively, so it is now a matter of tailoring programmes to suit them personally which will give their training much more focus. We are moving away from the days of a ‘good old net’ and have already run a fitness test (which will be repeated on a regular basis) and are breaking training sessions down into shorter, more specific skill based practices.

A lot of hard work lies ahead, but from what I’ve seen so far this won’t be a problem! Bangladesh will be tough, but hopefully we will create something special and give the country something to shout about!

Keep supporting!

Stephen

P.S I’d like to say thanks to everyone for all your support while we were out in South Africa – it was a tough tournament and it was great encouragement to keep getting texts/emails/facebook updates!