Hutchison happy with Jersey Cricket legacy

Former Yorkshire, Sussex and Middlesex player Paul Hutchison was part of Denmark's coaching set up before joining Jersey in early 2024

Outgoing Jersey boss Paul Hutchison feels the island's cricket side has improved under his leadership.

Hutchison is stepping down from his role as director of cricket and men's head coach after two seasons.

The 48-year-old leaves the island top of their ICC Challenge League group and led them to their best-ever T20 World Cup qualifying campaign, where they narrowly missed out on a place at next year's event despite beating Scotland.

"They're now in a place where they're more independent thinkers, they are winning games of cricket so I know they're going to be fine," Hutchison told BBC Sport.

"I know whoever takes the role on has got a great set of lads who are going to just keep pushing on.

"So it doesn't feel like I'm leaving them in the lurch - it feels like they're almost ready to just be set free."

Jersey's men are top of their ICC Challenge League group

Hutchison is leaving the role to spend more time with his Yorkshire-based family having split his time between Jersey and the UK mainland for the past two years.

During his time at the helm, he has helped develop rising Glamorgan star Asa Tribe and aided the likes of Harrison Carlyon, Patrick Gouge and Josh Lawrenson to spend winters playing cricket in Australia to help improve their game.

He says it is vital that Jersey continues to develop local talent if it is to remain a side pushing for World Cup qualification.

"If you've got two stars and nine ordinary players you're not going to achieve much - you'll achieve whenever they can have a superstar day out," he says.

"What you really need is a decent team so you've got six, seven, eight people who perform on a regular basis.

"Then the bigger picture there is how you develop from that 11 to a squad of 16, 18 or even 20 with the demands that are coming in with the team around the increased fixtures that are going to come.

"The lads are still amateurs, so there's lads who are in employment, who might not be available all the time - so you can't just have a core of 11 or 12, you need a bigger squad."

Jersey's win over Scotland this summer was a landmark victory in their history

How Jersey goes about getting that bigger squad is a tough challenge.

Unlike many of their rival nations, they cannot call on a diaspora of talented players with Jersey heritage playing overseas - something Italy did with great effect this summer as they beat Jersey to T20 World Cup qualification.

Also, Jersey - with a population of just 100,000 - does not have the levels of immigration of other nations, meaning they are less likely to have talent from places such as South Asia moving to the island.

"The landscape of cricket is changing," Hutchison added.

"The migration of people means that cricket teams can change pretty quickly from being pretty ordinary to being fairly excellent within a couple of years.

"The migration in and out of Jersey is pretty tight, so that side of it is not really going to change too much, I don't think.

"So it's just going to be focusing on the pathway and making sure these younger players are developing and coming through.

"One of the things we looked at doing during my time was increasing the fast bowling resources we had.

"We've now got four or five 6ft 4in fast bowlers who are only 15 years old, but if they keep tracking as they are doing, they should be ready to be picked up and put in the first team by whoever is coaching them in hopefully three or four years' time."