Frith named as Guernsey's new director of cricket

Jeremy Frith, who came out top of the Guernsey Press 100 greatest Island cricketers series last year thanks to his illustrious playing career, will be head coach to the men’s national team as part of the role he has taken up with immediate effect.

He will also be tasked with supporting the development team in developing a robust and comprehensive training and playing programme from under-11 to senior representative level. This will include developing acceleration programmes for players identified as having the ability to access ‘county and international level’ pathways and working with women’s head coach Lee Forshaw.

‘I’m delighted to be back involved with Guernsey Cricket, which has been a big part of my life and what ultimately brought me to the island,’ Frith said.

‘I’m especially looking forward to working with the players and playing a bigger part in the Guernsey Cricket community again.

• Listen to an extended interview with Jeremy Frith on his new role on this week's Guernsey Press Sport Podcast

‘There is plenty for me to get stuck in to, but the major focus is on getting a full and varied cricket programme together and establishing the coaching teams across both men’s and women’s pathways.’

The appointment comes after the Guernsey Cricket Board conducted a review into their development and high performance programmes, which highlighted a need to increase resources on island to ensure a consistency of contact with players and delivery of coaching content in line with strategic plans.

Frith, who remains Guernsey’s leading run-scorer in World Cricket League competition and the second leading run-scorer in Inter-Insular history, is an ECB level-four coach – the highest level attainable.

He joined the team to assist in the review of Guernsey Cricket and he will help direct and shape the outcomes from this that will create the new ‘Greenprint’ for the game both domestically and internationally for the next five years.

A new Cricket Committee will be established, chaired by Stuart Le Prevost, to oversee the ICC Pathway Representative Programme and act as selectors for matches within this.

Frith, along with Island men’s captain Josh Butler will also sit on this committee and other members will be sought.

The setting up of a women’s panel and personnel to sit on this will be determined in due course.

Nic Pothas and Steff Jones, who have acted as batting and bowling consultants to Guernsey Cricket, will continue to work with Frith as he directs.

‘Jeremy is of course well known to us both as a player and a coach and being on island is a tremendous resource to have available,’ said Guernsey Cricket chief exectuive Mark Latter.

‘Now is the right time for both sides to get him involved – again – more fully and I am excited already with the direction of our discussions and cannot wait to see these come to fruition.

‘Jeremy will provide valuable experience and mentoring to Ben [Ferbrache], Lee, Hannah [Eulenkamp] and Dec [Martel] in the coaching team and help all meet the challenging goals we have set ourselves in the coming years.’

Guernsey women’s head coach Forshaw added: ‘Having Jeremy join the team is great news and having him around to pick his brain will be invaluable for me and coaches across our system especially in this current focus period on Women’s and Girl’s cricket.’