Cricket:Ireland have announced the high-profile capture of former Australia paceman Craig McDermott as their new bowling coach and consultant.
McDermott left a similar role with Australia earlier this year and will immediately join up with the Irish squad at a pre-World Twenty20 training camp after they flew out to Sri Lanka today.
McDermott made the shock decision to quit as Australia’s fast bowling coach in May after he had been credited as a major reason behind the recent improvement of their quicks, as well as nurturing the country’s wealth of young talent, during a 12-month stint.
The 47-year-old will now instead work on the other side of the fence to his home country after Ireland were drawn in the same group as the Australians at the World Twenty20, which begins on September 18th.
“I am looking forward to working with (coach) Phil (Simmons) and his team at the World T20 in Sri Lanka,” he said. “Ireland has done well in the past World Cups and I am sure they will do again at this one.
“They have a well balanced squad and I am looking forward to getting stuck into preparing them for the World T20 in our training camp in Colombo. I see this as another opportunity for me to work with another international team and to further my coaching career.”
McDermott, whose son Alister won a first call-up for Australia’s current tour of the United Arab Emirates, is his country’s fifth-highest Test wicket taker having claimed 291 scalps in 71 appearances.
Cricket Ireland performance director David Holdsworth hailed McDermott’s signing and revealed the International Cricket Council had helped finance the move. “I am delighted that we have brought Craig on board as part of our coaching set-up,” he said.
“He is vastly experienced both as a top-class player and more recently specialist bowling coach. Craig’s enthusiasm, experience and knowledge will add further strength to our coach support staff and we thank the ICC high-performance programme for their financial support towards achieving this.
“Having recently been bowling coach to the Australian team, his insights into their players will help the team prepare for our match against them on 19th September.”