Neil MacRae: Jersey head coach leaves island side to take role with Netherlands women

Neil MacRae will aim to help Netherlands women make the 2024 T20 World Cup

Jersey's men's cricket head coach Neil MacRae is leaving his post to become head coach of Netherlands women.

The Scot, who was appointed in December 2013, has led Jersey's men to their best ever spell internationally.

Under MacRae, Jersey have made four qualifiers for the T20 World Cup and a Cricket World Cup Qualifier play-off.

It means Jersey are looking for new leaders of both their international sides, having advertised for a new women's head coach earlier this month.

"So much has happened over 10 years, it's been an amazing place to live and work," MacRae, who is also Jersey's director of cricket, told BBC Sport.

"There's been huge growth of both men's and women's cricket.

"The men's team have been an amateur side who have put Jersey on the world cricketing map, through the quality and commitment of the players consistently year-on-year through that period.

"After 10 years it is obviously a hard decision to move on, but at the same time I'm really excited by the challenge of moving to the Netherlands and working with their women's team."

Jersey have established themselves as one of Europe's top five non-Test playing sides under MacRae

MacRae led Jersey to the Global Qualifiers for the T20 World Cup for the first time in 2015 - a feat they repeated in 2019 and 2022 - while they also came fourth in the Europe Regional Qualifier for the 2024 event last summer, as Scotland and Ireland went on to progress to the finals.

He was also at the helm as Jersey won the ICC Challenge League B in 2022, which sent them through to last year's ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-Off in Namibia - which saw the island play their first-ever official List A matches, as they came fifth in the six-team tournament.

"To win seven ICC tournaments in 10 years across both 50-over and T20 formats, performances against professional teams, performances away from home, out of season, by an amateur team from an island of 100,000 people has been an incredible achievement by the players," MacRae said.

"It's been an absolute privilege to go around the world watching how they've developed and the quality of cricket they've produced to win those seven trophies.

"The first global T20 tournament we went to in 2015 in Ireland, on the back of winning our first European T20 tournament in Jersey that summer, was an unbelievable passage of play in T20 cricket.

"In 50-over cricket, winning Challenge League B with nine wins in 10 games across two tournaments in 2022, including massive victories against top sides in Uganda and Hong Kong in that division at home in Jersey, to win that trophy in front of home support was an incredible time as well."

MacRae's first major task as Netherlands boss will be to try and qualify for this year's T20 World Cup - he will lead them into the final qualifying tournament in the United Arab Emirates in April.

Jersey Cricket chief executive Sarah Gomersall said: "On behalf of Jersey Cricket, I'd like to express sincere thanks for Neil's unwavering commitment to the development of cricket on the island.

"These are big shoes to fill but I am confident a new coach is inheriting a very well-established platform and we will be able to move on to further success."