News

The day after Ireland’s exit from the ICC World Twenty 20, former Australian opening bowler, and current Consultant Bowling Coach for Cricket Ireland, Craig McDermott speaks about the squad’s disappointment and falling foul to one of the challenges of touring in the sub-continent.
There’s only been one negative to working with the Ireland Cricket team in the run up to and during the ICC World Twenty20, and that is the fact that it’s over already. I’ve really enjoyed working with the team and with Phil Simmons and the rest of the backroom team, I just wish we were staying a bit longer for the Super Eights.

There’s no difference between the Irish boys and any other team I’ve worked with – they’ve got a hell of a lot of talent and now all they need is more cricket against the higher ranked teams to improve. With the Futures tours, though, that might be difficult because top eight teams have a very full schedule, but hopefully the ICC can work out a way to get more games for the higher ranked Associate nations so that they can continue to get better. I mean what I say here if we can get the Irish boys playing more regularly against the top teams there is no reason why they couldn’t compete and beat higher ranked sides regularly, this competition is all they are missing.

I think it’s fantastic that teams like Ireland and Afghanistan are in world tournaments. There are six or seven guys in the Ireland team that play County Cricket so they get exposure to top players there, but there is no comparison with international cricket really. To get better, you have to play against the best, and no doubt the boys and management will have learned a lot from this tournament and will know what to work on from here.

It’s a pity that Ireland don’t have much cricket over the next few months. The next fixtures are in March so the guys will have some time off and then can get down to winter training. They can keep working on some of the stuff they’ve learned and worked on here in Sri Lanka and just keep getting better.

All the Irish lads are gone home already, and I’m just about to leave Colombo for home myself and spend some time with the family. I don’t have a huge amount coming up but I’m keen to keep expanding on my coaching knowledge and to travel all around the world.

I’d love to work with Ireland again and I’ve already spoken to Richard (Holdsworth, Cricket Ireland Performance Director) and Simmo about possibly doing that. It’s disappointing that after all of the work we’ve done in the last three weeks the bowlers only got to bowl 20 overs, so we most definitely have unfinished business.

I was one of the people who was ill the day before the West Indies match so I didn’t get out of bed until about two o’clock yesterday. Around half the squad were struck down by a very similar ‘virus’ of some kind and it’s fair to say it wasn’t the most enjoyable 24 hours, but I’ve toured the sub-continent several times before and I know that this is all part of the package. I had at least recovered enough to help with the warm ups and then to watch the little cricket we had and a whole lot of rain.

To go out of a World tournament having only played one and a half matches leaves a huge feeling of dissatisfaction, for it to happen in almost carbon copy circumstances for the second World Twenty 20 tournament in a row is sickening! I wasn’t involved the last time around but I can tell you how much this hurt, whilst 129 wasn’t quite as big a total as we would have liked I think we would have given it a very good crack of the whip and given the West Indies a good run last night if we were given the chance.

The boys however are very pragmatic and have taken it, like all the challenges they face, very well. What helped was the reception everyone received back at the hotel. There were a lot of supporters back at the hotel after the game was abandoned and Ireland really do have some of the best fans in the world let me tell you! Some of the guys stayed up and had a few drinks with them, but I still wasn’t feeling the best so I had to hit the sheets pretty much straight away. We’re all deflated to go out of the tournament the way we did, but all we can do is keep working away and I hope that the chance to get back on the big stage isn’t too far away.

Craig McDermott
The Irish staff have been great to work with © Cricket Ireland/Barry Chambers
Yes