The Munster Cricket Executive Board held its final meeting for 2019 in the River Lee Hotel on 26 November 2019. The meeting noted the following events that had taken place since the previous Board meeting in October.
Club Information Day
The Club Information Day had taken place on October 20 last and participants had been briefed on important changes in the areas of competitions, registration, child safeguarding and selection procedures for all Munster squads from the Munster Reds down to U15s.
The afternoon also incorporated an EGM to pass some necessary changes to the Constitution to facilitate the Incorporation process and these were unanimously agreed following a detailed briefing from the Munster Chairperson, David Griffin. The day finished with a very successful awards presentation. Sunday November 24th saw five clubs represented at a very informative Club Connects Presentation held in Charleville and hosted by Cricket Ireland.
Incorporation Process
Chairperson, David Griffin, gave a further detailed briefing on the Incorporation process. The new company, Munster Cricket Union Company Limited by Guarantee, is now registered with the Companies Registration Office and the existing Executive Board members have been appointed as its first directors. They will stay in office during the transition period and the new Board including some new Independent Directors will probably take office in or around February 2020.
In that regard, the nominations committee reported that some strong candidates had applied for the Independent Director roles and these will be followed up in the coming weeks. A detailed checklist has been drawn up of matters to be dealt with as the Company takes over responsibility for cricket in Munster and the necessary work to deal with these items is underway.
Winter Coaching Programmes
Cricket Manager, Joe Moynihan, reported on the developments in relation to winter coaching programmes and squad selections. Weekend sessions have started for U15s and U17s and are being well attended and sessions for U19s/Munster Heat will get underway shortly. Joe was congratulated on the work he had done to get the Indoor Centre in Ballycurreen up and running.
There is some time still available to clubs who would like to hire it at weekends and interested clubs should contact Joe to make bookings. He also reported that he is working with the Participation & Pathways group to update its terms of reference and composition to make it more effective in 2020 and beyond.
Cricket Operations
The Cricket Operations Committee reported that 2020 should see all four divisions featuring 7 teams and this would reflect a record level of participation for Munster Cricket. The major issue now is shortage of playing facilities.
To help address this, the committee is looking at restructuring T20 competitions to allow more midweek games and domestic cricket will continue to the maximum extent possible on weekends where the Reds or Heat teams are involved in competitive fixtures.
Roles and Responsibilities
The meeting approved a document on roles and responsibilities prepared by Cricket Ireland which sets out the responsibilities of Cricket Ireland and the Unions for the development and running of cricket in Ireland in future years. It also endorsed Munster Cricket’s involvement in a group known as Cork Sports 2040 which brings together all the sporting bodies in Cork to promote Cork as a sporting venue and to co-operate on facility development.
Outgoing President – Jack Russell
Finally, the Board thanked outgoing President, Jack Russell for representing the Union so well during his two years in office. Jack will hand over the Presidency to Kuros Mohammadi at the AGM on 8th December in the River Lee Hotel. This will be a historic occasion being the final AGM of the existing Munster Cricket Union and all clubs and those who have contributed to Munster Cricket in the past are asked to attend.
