Irish international Fintan McAllister will commence in his new role as community development officer for the Dublin City area this week.

This is a great boost for the game in Leinster and will be specifically geared towards grass roots programmes designed to increase participation, while also working to develop local emerging talent by assisting with Leinster youth programmes during the summer.

The post has come about following many discussions between Cricket Leinster and Dublin City Council (Sports & Recreation Department) and now replicates the positions that are currently running at both Fingal and South Dublin County Councils.

Sports & Recreation services manager at Dublin City Council, Emma Byrne, is delighted with the appointment of the new position commenting ‘we have been working closely with the Leinster rugby, boxing (Irish Amateur Boxing Association), the FAI and more recently Cricket Leinster in a partnership that has seen children in all areas of Dublin city being given the opportunity to play the game’.

‘We have supported Cricket Leinster programmes throughout the county in 2014 and we are now looking to take the working partnership to the next level. Fintan has engaged already with quite a few of our sports officers (Irishtown, Drimnagh, Finglas, Poppintree, Cabra & Rathmines) so we can expect lots of activities to be delivered during the year. These are exciting times for cricket in Ireland and we are looking forward to working with both Fintan and Cricket Leinster in his/their efforts to promote the game further in our area.