John Bracewell appointment marks shift of emphasis for Cricket Ireland

Cricket Ireland chose John Bracewell as the new head coach “because he gets us and he gets Test cricket’, according to high performance director Richard Holdsworth.

The former New Zealand coach, who led the Black Caps to the 2007 World Cup semi-finals, signed a two-and-a-half year contract until 2017 to succeed Phil Simmons on Wednesday.

The choice of Bracewell marks a shift of emphasis, with Cricket Ireland keen for its players to receive a thorough grounding in multi-day cricket as they look to achieve their ambition of becoming a Test nation in 2018. Ireland would secure Test status in three years’ time under the ICC’s ’Test Challenge’ should they win the 2015-2017 Inter-Continental Cup and then beat the 10th-ranked nation (currently Zimbabwe) over four five-day matches in 2018.