Cricket Ireland has today announced that Ed Joyce has been appointed as the permanent Head Coach of the Ireland Women’s cricket team on a two-year contract.
Joyce was working as the interim head coach since June, after the departure of previous coach Aaron Hamilton.
Joyce took the women’s team to the recent ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier. He has been involved in the international coaching set-up with the Irish men’s, women’s and performance pathway teams since he announced his international retirement in May 2018.
After finishing third in the Quadrangular Series, Ireland reached the semi-finals at the World T20 qualifier in Scotland but were denied a place after losing to Bangladesh.
They finished third in the competition but they will have a watching brief for the tournament in Australia next February and March.
Nevertheless, Joyce has impressed working with a variety of Irish sides since announcing his retirement from cricket in May 2018.
Though Joyce, who had a brief international career with England, only played one Test for Ireland, he scored 2,151 runs in 61 one-day internationals and 404 in 16 T20s.
As a coach, Joyce’s foremost task would be to focus on next year’s ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier in Sri Lanka. Also, one of the challenges will be to see a smooth transition after the retirement of a few experienced players, and also promising players handed professional contracts for the first time.
"It’s a great time to have been offered this opportunity, and I had no hesitation in accepting the role full-time," he said.
"While we were all obviously disappointed to have missed out on qualification for the T20 World Cup, what impressed me about the squad was the players’ commitment to learn and the talent that began to emerge as the games came along.
"It wasn’t just the senior players that stood up, but a number of the newer players to the senior team showed what they can offer.
"I was particularly happy with the fight the team showed in difficult positions against both Thailand and Bangladesh. Our fielding and bowling in both was outstanding and that character, being shown by a very young team, is going to be very important going forward."
