The Cricket Ireland CEO tells Tom Walker how he plans to make the sport as big as rugby and football in the Emerald Isle

Cricket Ireland has launched a new five-year plan which aims to establish cricket as a major sport in Ireland alongside football, rugby and GAA (Gaelic football and hurling). The new strategy – Making Cricket Mainstream – was published on 26 April and is being driven by Cricket Ireland CEO Warren Deutrom. Speaking to Sports Management, Deutrom says the new direction represents a watershed moment for Irish cricket.

“When we think of major sports in Ireland, we think of GAA, rugby and football,” Deutrom says. “Well, why not cricket too? Some might look at that target and say ‘no chance’. But I’m of the opinion that if you set yourself a soft target and achieve it, you might look back and think whether you could have achieved even more? You need to set your goals very high – and that’s what we’ve done.”

Beyond the boundary
The new strategy is the third four-year plan overseen by Deutrom while CEO of Cricket Ireland. He was appointed in 2006 – following an eight-year career at both the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and International Cricket Council (ICC) – and during his time leading the governing body, Ireland’s senior teams have developed into respectable forces in world cricket. Now, says Deutrom, it is time to take the next step: to make Irish cricket a major force in its own backyard.

“For me, being a ‘mainstream sport’ means that a sport is culturally visible,” he says. “To some extent it is already happening. If you drive up the A5 from Dublin up towards the west on a weekend during the summer, you’ll pass a number of cricket clubs and see games being played. Get into a taxi in Dublin and you can have a conversation about the national cricket team with the driver.”

At the heart of the new strategy is to build on the successes of the national team and to further de-mystify cricket for the Irish public. Plans include making the sport highly visible throughout the country – from grassroots up.

“Winning against the likes of England and Pakistan at ICC World Cups have caught the nation’s imagination,” Deutrom says. “And we want to now move to the next step, which is transferring that interest into active players and fans.”

Deutrom adds that the success of the national team – and the interest it has created – has in the past offered Cricket Ireland something to hang its business plan on, by securing broadcast and sponsorship deals. He is, however, keen to move on from relying on a single team’s fortunes for revenue – something that the new strategy addresses.

“All of our previous strategies have banked on the success and visibility of our international team at major competitions,” Deutrom says. “Our business model was reliant on the men’s senior team qualifying – and doing well – at the 50-over and T20 World Cups.

“This new strategy will, for the first time, build a business model which not only provides us with visibility between World Cups, but also offers us the ability to be able to develop a broadcast model and a platform for sponsor which we haven’t had in the past.”

In practice, this means Cricket Ireland organising more one day international (ODI) games against Test level countries. The effects of the new strategy are already being felt. This year (2016) Ireland will play a total 11 ODIs – including home games against top nations Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Africa and Australia. The women’s team will also play more games than ever before during 2016, with six home matches against Bangladesh and seven against South Africa.

“Having more games is going to help us to unlock the commercial model that only the Test nations have enjoyed until now – the ability to have matches which they commercialise, put on TV and generate broad sponsorship from,” Deutrom says.

Club matters
Deutrom, however, stresses the importance of club cricket to the success of making cricket a mainstream sport in the country. The strategy outlines a number of ways in which Cricket Ireland will look to build capacity and infrastructure at grassroots level – both in terms of facilities and players.

“We’re launching a club fund to assist the clubs with grants for equipment and facilities – in addition to the practical support we provide already,” Deutrom says. “We’re also focusing on having more schools offering the sport as part of their curriculum.

“We want children to move from schools to clubs – and we need to focus on making that transition a smooth one. We want to avoid a situation where kids play an eight-a-side format of kwik cricket at school – where everyone gets to hit, bowl and catch – only for them to join a club where they realise they don’t have the correct kit and they have to spend most of the game fielding at fine leg.”

As well investing in clubs to make them attractive to new players, the strategy prioritises efforts to create opportunities to play cricket in a range of formats. “Cricket can be a time consuming sport and we don’t want people who are new to the game be put off by that,” Deutrom says. “So we’re looking at creating more club leagues – but also office leagues and indoor competitions.

“We want to try and remove any barriers there are for people to enjoy a game of cricket.”