“Having been down the full-on Full Member road before with New Zealand Cricket, it is not my desire to do so again”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

John Bracewell has announced that he will be stepping down as Ireland’s head coach once his contract expires in December.

Bracewell revealed that since he achieved his aim of getting Ireland Test status, he now wants to move back to his native New Zealand and search for a “new goal”.

“Having been down the full-on Full Member road before with New Zealand Cricket, it is not my desire to do so again,” he said. “Whilst my wife and I have immersed ourselves into Ireland and Irish culture we feel it is now time to return home to New Zealand and our families. I have therefore agreed with Cricket Ireland to finish up at the conclusion of my contract.

“I took on the role as head coach because I believed in the little guy getting a fair break and the cause of attaining Test status appealed to my underdog psyche. That having been achieved, albeit by an unexpected turn of events, has left me looking for a new goal and challenge.”

Even though Ireland only won one of their 14 completed matches against Full Member nations in the time that Bracewell has been in charge, Cricket Ireland Performance Director Richard Holdsworth insisted that the 59-year-old did a good job.

“The last two years have been a difficult period of transition and rebuilding in which John has tried to nurture inexperienced talent against the best teams in the world,” Holdsworth said. “His last five months remain a very important period where I look forward to working with him to further invest in our key priority areas with new full member status now in place, and continue to lay down important foundations for our future.”