Have the GCB got it right?

IT'S said he's costing the Guernsey Cricket Board £12,000 a year, so it's fair to ask: are we getting value for money from Jack Birkenshaw? On the face of it, his was a great appointment, a major coup for the fledgling Guernsey Cricket Board which is doing so much to take island cricket forward.

I'm a fan of the island's technical director and his track record in the game is up there with the best. But what is island cricket getting for a substantial wad of money?

Is the man who once played for England, took Leicestershire from nowhere to the county championship and was a contender for the England manager's job given to the incumbent Duncan Fletcher, getting the best out of the island's top players?

The answer to those three questions has to be a resounding no and, I strongly suspect, it is not his fault either.

The GCB hierarchy may not wish to admit it and will probably vehemently deny it, but, as the Tykes like to say, 'there's trouble in't camp'.

Players are unhappy and not only because they are regularly losing. Heads are down.

Birkenshaw tried to put a brave face on things as Guernsey were swept aside by an under-strength Bermuda last weekend, but all is not well less than nine weeks before the team head off to compete in the European Second Division championships.

It should be the side's form that is the biggest concern, but the way it is prepared, coached and selected is of much greater worry.

Or it should be.

Remarkably, Birkenshaw does not even get to pick the team.

He simply flies in ahead of a match - and not all the island's big games - offers advice before, during and after, and then is off again.

It's true that one of the most in-demand UK coaches has spent valuable time working with some of the island's developing talent, but in the relatively little time he spends in Guernsey each year, there is next to no time spent with the island's senior squad.

Andy Biggins, the island captain, can't buy a decent score on grass at present, but was this made known to the technical director ahead of the Bermuda matches? No.

Biggins again struggled and the opportunity for some skilled one-to-one work with a high-quality coach, was missed.

His modus operandi in and around the squad appears to be unsettling the team, not assisting it. Players are confused. Who do they listen to?

All the decisions on policy and selection are being made by the locally-based Dave Hearse, the manager, and Dave Piesing, the GCB chairman, neither of which are in Birkenshaw's league as a coach.

This cannot be right.

Birkenshaw said earlier this week: 'We have a lot to do fitness-wise, technically and being more thoughtful out there on the field.'

So what's being done to address that?

Getting the players fitter has been left in the hands of Hearse. That's fine.

But what of the technical work?

His job title suggests that working on technique and skill is part of the remit, but it is not happening.

Who is working with them? Nobody.

As for being more thoughtful out on the field, how are the Guernsey side expected to improve in that area without substantial assistance from the man being paid a five-figure sum per annum?

Hearse and Piesing cannot offer that. Birkenshaw can.

Surely, the time has come to look closely at the Yorkshireman's role with the island team and if he is to stay - which he should in the right circumstances - give the man some clout and let him work far more closely with the senior squad who need to succeed in Glasgow in August if they are to have a chance of fulfilling the GCB chairman's dream in the time-span he has often spoken about.

Hearse can still have a major role and be a link with the technical director, but the time has come for Birkenshaw to be given full control.