NZ are the blueprint of success for Ireland

CRICKET Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom wants Ireland to follow the New Zealand blueprint as they begin their preparations for Test cricket following this week’s historic International Cricket Council meeting.

The ICC agreed a new constitution on Thursday that will see Ireland and Afghanistan granted Test status, with both countries set to be handed a funding injection of £43m over eight years.

Cricket Ireland recently appointed Elaine Nolan – New Zealand’s former game development manager – as their new participation director, while former Black Caps’ player and head coach John Bracewell has been in charge of the senior men’s team since April 2015.

Deutrom believes the Black Caps set the standards for smaller cricket nations and says Cricket Ireland relied heavily on New Zealand’s expertise when establishing the framework for the InterPros, Ireland’s first-class domestic competition.

“There are parallels with Ireland and New Zealand in terms of population size, and of being a smaller nation on the cusp of a much more significant cricket market, in our case England and in their case Australia,” he said.

“They have shared with us their plans on how they deal with their provinces, and how their structures work as regards governance and decision-making. It may seem incredibly abstruse, but that work is incredibly timeconsuming, and so we are really grateful to New Zealand for sharing the work they had already done on it.”

Deutrom hopes Ireland will play their first Test in the summer of 2018, but admits that they may struggle to find space in the calendar if they end up co-hosting the World Cup Qualifier with Scotland.

“We have plans in our head for potential opponents, but we aren’t able to share those at the moment,” he continued.

“We have also submitted an expression of interest in cohosting the 2018 World Cup Qualifier if current hosts Bangladesh automatically qualify for the 2019 World Cup.

“So we may have to fit an extra 20 days of ODI cricket into our schedule in 2018, which would take up a lot of time and venue capacity. It would feel odd not playing multi-day cricket in 2018, so a Test match is something we will explore, but the task of finding a window for it should not be underestimated.”