The Munster Cricket Board met online on Monday, 1st February, for its first meeting for 2021. All members were present and the Chairperson, David Griffin, welcomed new directors Chris Hickey, Brian McNamara and Talha Kayani to their first meeting.
Treasurer, Bryan O’Donnell and General Manager, Joe Moynihan, presented the first draft of the budget for Munster Cricket for 2021. It was emphasised that both income and expenditure figures could change significantly as the impact of Covid on activity was extremely difficult to predict and that the budget did not include the full impact of High-Performance income and costs as finalisation of interprovincial structures for 2021 was not yet complete. After several questions were dealt with, the first draft of the budget was approved, and it was agreed that updated figures will be reviewed at the next meeting.
Joe Moynihan informed the meeting that, following review of the applications submitted, for the Development Officer posts, five candidates had been selected for interview and these interviews should be completed in the coming days. The intention is to make appointments with a start date of end February/early March but Covid restrictions could impact on the precise start date.
Operations Committee Chair Joe O’Mahony updated the Board on plans for the 2021 season assuming Covid allowed the season to start in April with normal playing conditions. He noted that planning had been done for alternative structures should Covid restrictions persist for some or all the season. He presented a paper relating to entry requirements for competitions in 2021 which the meeting approved.
Participation & Pathways Chair Ben Huskinson updated the meeting on initial planning for 2021 and noted that he was encouraged that more clubs were engaging with the committee and putting youth sections in place.
As Chair of the Commercial committee, Bryan O’Donnell noted that work had started on putting a Munster Cricket membership scheme in place and tax and other requirements to set this up are being worked on. While Covid is making the attraction of sponsorship difficult, the committee is following up several leads and it is hoped that an announcement regarding a new sponsor can be made soon.
Joe Moynihan noted that nominations have now been received from all clubs to the new Clubs committee and the first meeting of this group should occur prior to the March Board meeting. Talha Kayani updated the meeting regarding work he was doing with an IT group to develop the necessary software to allow for player registration and payment.
On behalf of the Strategic Planning Group, Christine Moloney took the Board through a detailed report on progress to date and the plan to have this plan completed by the end of March. Ben Huskinson led a review of a player and supporters’ questionnaire which was approved for issue. The feedback from this, it is hoped, will inform many of the decisions to be made in forming the Strategic Plan and will also be of considerable use in framing competition structures and other development plans in the coming years.
Finally, the Chairperson, David Griffin, noted that he had circulated a job description for the position of Chairperson and asked the Board members to review this and begin to consider whom might be able to take up the role in 2022.
The next Board meeting is scheduled to take place on the 1st March 2021.
