Irish chief makes homegrown talent promise

Director of Operations for Ireland Cricket, Mark Garaway, is firmly committed to developing home-grown talent despite a merry-go-round of players with adopted countries.

Garaway’s comments, published in thesportreview.com, outline a determination to continue the development of Irish players at home.

The former England analyst also made it clear that New Zealander Hamish Marshall’s decision to use his Irish passport to play ODI’s for Ireland will not lay down a marker for an influx of outside players.

“I get approaches all the time from players who are interested in coming over here but we need (to) ascertain they have the proper motivations,” said Garaway.

“Hamish obviously wants to play ODI cricket for Ireland but he sees his role as more than a player.

Garaway also pointed out that young Irish cricketers are making the big-time and suggested that 17-year-old left-arm spinner George Dockrell is on the verge of signing a county contract.

“We’ve got some really good young players coming through; you only have to look at our performances at junior level.”

“It’s great to have players making the grade with the counties. We can manage negotiations with young players at counties a little bit better from now on.

“It’s more a player centred way of doing things and means that we’re not going to get into any club v country disputes.”