Cricket Ireland confirms departure of Nathan Hauritz from spin-bowling coach role

DUBLIN: Cricket Ireland on Thursday confirmed that former Australia spinner Nathan Hauritz has left his role of the national spin bowling coach for personal family reasons.

Hauritz had earlier taken compassionate leave in May this year for the same reasons which have now propelled him to leave the job of Ireland's spin-bowling coach.

“Words cannot describe how much I enjoyed my experience with Cricket Ireland. The players, staff and families all made myself and (my wife) Dianne feel like we had been part of the organisation for years.

I will be forever grateful to Richard Holdsworth, Ed Joyce and Heinrich Malan for giving me an opportunity to coach at an international level. I wish them all well for the series against Australia Women and upcoming T20 qualifiers respectively," said Hauritz in a statement issued by Cricket Ireland.

"To all the players, I don’t have many words other than 'thank you'. Every day you all continued to amaze me with how you were and were able to compete and push some of the best teams in the world. Good luck and I will miss you all," he added.

Hauritz started his work with Ireland teams from mid-2022 and worked across senior men's, women's and pathway systems. He travelled as part of the coaching staff to the most recent men’s and women’s T20 World Cups campaigns.

"It has been a sad, but understandable decision that Nathan has made, and we all wish him and his family well during this difficult time. Nathan was our first dedicated national spin bowling coach and brought a great deal of experience and insightful thinking to the role.

He worked closely with not only our frontline spinners, but with the pathway and emerging spin bowlers within our system and was very optimistic about the talent coming through. I wish him and Dianne well," said Ireland Men's head coach Heinrich Malan.

Hauritz played international cricket for Australia from 2002 to 2011, featuring in 17 Tests, 58 ODIs and 3 T20Is, taking 128 wickets overall. He played for Queensland and New South Wales in First-class cricket, and featured for Brisbane Heat, Sydney Thunder and Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League.

After his retirement as a player in 2016, Hauritz started to work as spin bowling coach for women’s team Queensland Fire and Brisbane Heat in the BBL in 2020, before landing up the job in the same capacity with Ireland.

"It was a delight to work closely with Nathan, so it's sad to see him go. Nathan worked brilliantly with our spinners and his knowledge and experience of working within a women’s cricket environment was of great benefit to myself and the coaching and support staff. He was a great addition to the travelling coaches at the T20 World Cup back in February and I was looking forward to working with him again throughout our busy summer.

On behalf of the women's senior squad, we’d like to thank Nathan for his work, his impact continues on in those who benefited from his coaching," said Ireland women’s head coach Ed Joyce.

Cricket Ireland also said the consideration on timing and nature of any recruitment process for the vacant spin bowling-coach position will be undertaken in due course.