TRENT JOHNSTON HOPES that the Irish women’s cricket team can scale new heights after his departure.
The Girls in Green were superb winners of the European T20 Championships with two games to spare last weekend.
The silverware served as a fitting finale for former Ireland captain Johnston who is stepping down after eight months as women’s coach and returning home to coach in Australia.
“It was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up,” Johnston told this week’s episode of The Slog Sweep podcast but admitted that the decision to leave was a difficult one.
“It’s sad to leave the women’s game because of the effort we’ve put in over the last eight months.
The girls are tasting that success now and I certainly hope that the next coach who comes in offers the girls as much as I’ve tried to do and they can be as successful.
The Irish rugby team’s fourth-place finish at the World Cup earlier this month has re-opened debate on the coverage of women’s sport.
And while Johnston admitted that his team don’t always get the plaudits they deserve, he thanked the Irish media for their support.
“I wasn’t involved that much in women’s sport before I took over the head coach’s position but now, being involved with them, you can see that they don’t get the press that they deserve.
“Certainly with their results over the last three or four weeks, we certainly have which is good for the sport. The Irish press have been outstanding especially over the last three or four weeks when we won the county championships, the T20 Division Two, and then we just won the European title.
It’s great for the sport. It’s great to see people talking about the women’s game in Ireland.
“Obviously the success of the men has been at the forefront for the past seven years but the ladies are coming through and they certainly deserve what they’re getting at the moment.”
***
Click here to listen to the full interview with Trent Johnston on The Slog Sweep.
This week’s Irish Senior Cup final special includes a feature preview of this weekend’s big game including interviews with Clontarf’s Bill Coghlan and captain Eoghan Delany, and Nasser Shoukat and captain Cormac McLoughlin of The Hills.
