Graeme West is appointed Director of High Performance by Cricket Ireland

Graeme West, the current Cricket West Indies (CWI) High Performance Manager has been appointed Cricket Ireland (CI) Director of High Performance and will start in the post next month.

West, who possesses the highest ECB Coaching qualification (Level 4), also counts a World Cup in his list of coaching successes, leading the West Indies Under-19s to win in the final against Rahul Dravid’s India in Bangladesh in 2016.

Starting his coaching career at Middlesex County Cricket Club, West held the post of Academy Director for five years. He built a beneficial partnership with Brian O’Rourke and helped guide talented young Irish players including Andrew and Stuart Poynter, Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie through the Middlesex system.

In 2012, West was appointed to head the CWI High Performance Centre in Barbados, cultivating the region’s best young talent. Following a period in charge of the Under-19s and ‘A’ Team, he moved to Antigua where he took up his current role as CWI High Performance Manager, responsible for the expansion of the High Performance Pathway, including the creation of Academy programs designed to ensure the continued growth of talented young players, elite coaches and sports science staff across the region.

“In Graeme West , we feel we have found that candidate.

Speaking from his home in Antigua, West said: “I would like to thank Cricket West Indies for the opportunities provided to me and my family over the last twelve years, working with world class players and coaches has supported my professional development and enhanced my love and passion for the game of cricket.

“I am delighted to be joining Cricket Ireland as the organisation continues to grow and strengthen. The Strategic Plan for 2024-27 is tremendously exciting and I look forward to using my experience and ideas to the abundance of talent and expertise that has been amassed as we further build Ireland as a significant cricketing nation.

“Recent achievements on the field have increased my excitement in leading the Cricket Ireland High Performance Team. The Senior Women’s wins against Sri Lanka demonstrate the youthful squad’s remarkable promise and talent, the Senior Men’s triumph in Test Cricket highlight the good progress being made in red-ball cricket.

“The Emerging Ireland sides successes against the West Indies and the Under-19s Women’s achievements at Loughborough are a credit to the fantastic work being delivered by the coaching and support staff and the systems put in place to identify, develop and manage young potential,” West added.

Warren Deutrom, CEO of Cricket Ireland, said: “When we set out to create and recruit for the role, the profile, initiative and experience that Graeme possesses is exactly what we were looking for. We realised that in order to be successful in this new post, the candidate had leadership experience, great people skills and the capacity to be a mentor as much as a manager.

Having created a global network of contacts through his coaching and management roles, Graeme is well experienced in the strategic preparation for ICC events and bi-lateral series and knows the logistical challenges to plan and schedule international development series. Experience that will be very beneficial in this position.

As a company, we are evaluating and modernising our processes to make sure we are still appropriate as Full Members in a setting that is changing quickly. Recognising that the volume and breadth of our activity had surpassed the capabilities of our previous Full Member organisations was one of our strategic choices.

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Following many recommendations, we subsequently made the decision to divide the present High Performance Director post into more manageable component pieces, in keeping with the practices of other Full Member countries. “We’re excited for Graeme to lead us from the start.”