Heinrich Malan: New Ireland boss says Kevin O'Brien is still in contention for place

Heinrich Malan's appointment as Ireland head coach was announced in January

New Ireland head coach Heinrich Malan has said he has been in touch with Kevin O'Brien and insisted he is still in contention for selection under him.

O'Brien, Ireland's leading appearance maker, missed out on a central contract for the coming seasons when they were awarded by Cricket Ireland earlier this month.

The 37-year-old was dropped from the senior squad following the Irish side's disappointing exit from the T20 World Cup in October after defeats by Sri Lanka and Namibia.

O'Brien, the only Irish batter to have scored a century in Test, One Day International and T20 cricket, retired from 50-over cricket last year but is still available for T20s and Test cricket.

"We have exchanged a couple of messages," Malan, 40, said when asked about O'Brien's future on what was his first engagement with the media since being appointed to the Ireland role in January.

O'Brien is Ireland's leading appearance maker

"I guess the message that I said was 'things are where they are at the moment', I haven't been on the ground and we haven't been able to meet face-to-face. That is one of the key things that I am pretty keen to do.

"When the contracting stuff was made public, Andrew White [Ireland's chair of selectors] said that no player is ever out of contention, if you perform and put the currency forward then there is always going to be an opportunity.

"At this stage I am really keen to catch up with Kev, hopefully by the middle of April and by then we are going to be straight into some domestic cricket which is a perfect opportunity to put some currency forward.

"We all know that he is a quality player. At the moment it is not necessarily going his way but that is the sort of squad that we want to build over time where there is healthy competition for places.

"If people who don't get selected can go away, perform and make sure that they keep putting some healthy competition forward then that will definitely put us in good stead."

'I get up in the morning wanting to improve my players'

South Africa native Malan's first assignment as Ireland head coach will be to join the Ireland Wolves squad for their tour of Namibia, for which the panel departs on Thursday and will play seven games between 21 March and 5 April.

Having previously worked as New Zealand's assistant coach and fielding lead, he comes to the Irish job after leaving his role as head coach of the Auckland Aces.

He succeeds Graham Ford, who stepped down in December after four years at the helm, with former Northamptonshire boss David Ripley handing the reigns to Malan after a three-month stint as interim boss.

Ireland achieved some memorable results under Ford, most notably one-day wins over England and South Africa as well as making their debut as a Test team in 2018.

When asked about what highlights he might deliver, Malan said he likes to focus more processes rather than outcomes, and also revealed that he likes to get players involved in decision-making.

"I totally understand that we live in a high performance environment where it is all about results but I get up in the morning wanting to improve my players," explained Malan, who will move to Malahide in early April to set up home with his family.

"If I can do that over periods of time, then hopefully that wonderful thing called winning will take care of itself. We have a great opportunity with the upcoming schedule, with the most amount of cricket that has ever been played in Ireland this summer.

"For me it is about building self-sufficient players. I am fortunate in the way that Rips [David Ripley] has now set things up in terms of collaboratively working together, getting the collective IQ in the room to make some more contributions because I believe players can help make decisions.

"Yes, we as coaches can influence but I guess our influence is more in the preparation than the playing, and I try to get to a point where when we get to game time we support."

Opportunity to evolve the coaching staff

Gary Wilson, 36, played 292 times for Ireland

That busy summer of cricket that Malan referred to includes a range of T20 and ODI meetings with South Africa, India, New Zealand and Afghanistan before the T20 World Cup in Australia in October.

Former internationals Gary Wilson and Ryan Eagleson were appointed to the Ireland coaching staff earlier in March. Malan is looking forward to working with the pair, though also said there is scope for adding to his coaching staff.

"A big part for me was ensuring that I have some connection through the staff with the current squad and these are people who have been in positions who have been successful with our squad over the past 12 months," he added.

"They play really important roles for me and I have had a fair few conversations with those boys to try and get as much information as I can before touching down.

"In time I guess there is always the opportunity for us to keep looking at evolving that space and we have had some discussions around what that could look like, but there will be a process around that and something I will look at once I'm on the ground.

"The wheel is turning nicely and there is an opportunity for me to come in with my understanding of how things run, then over time introduce potentially new avenues or build on some current foundations that we have in place."