Paul Hutchison appointed Jersey director of cricket and men's head coach

Paul Hutchison had a 10-year First Class career and also played for England 'A'

Jersey have appointed Paul Hutchison interim director of cricket and men's head coach.

The 46-year-old former Yorkshire, Sussex and Middlesex player has most recently been part of Denmark's coaching set up and has agreed a deal initially through to the end of 2024.

His first games will be two T20 internationals against Spain in April.

He replaces Neil MacRae, who left the role in January to become head coach of the Netherlands' women's team.

"He brings a lot of recent experience in associate level cricket," Jersey cricket board chief executive Sarah Gomersall told BBC Sport.

"He's been specialist bowling coach with Denmark and acting head coach of Denmark when they played a round of Challenge League in Canada, where they won four out of five games.

"That's really relevant for us because we play our T20 international qualifying competition in Germany against associate level federations this July, and also the Challenge League first round starts at the back end of this year.

"Denmark are a team that we know well, so we've seen him in action as a coach, and he will have seen us and a lot of the teams we'll be playing against."

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

There were around 40 applications for the role which will see Hutchison - who has also coached Sweden's national team and worked as a bowling consultant coach with the West Indies - oversee cricket on the island.

Jersey won their ICC Challenge League last year and progressed to the next round of qualifying for the 2023 Cricket World Cup and also reached the final round of qualifying for the 2024 T20 World Cup.

While the appointment is initially on an interim basis, Gomersall hopes it will last longer if it is successful:

"Ideally, from a continuity perspective, any team would want as little disruption as possible on the coaching side.

"So if results go well on the field, if he adjusts to life in Jersey, if he adjusts to working with our players, and it all goes well, then there's no reason why this couldn't become a longer term appointment.

"Having an interim contract in place now takes some of that pressure away on all sides, but I'm confident that it's a good appointment, and we're really glad he's able to start quickly."