It may well transpire that the most important event in Irish cricket in recent years was not the victory over England or the three wins earlier this year at the World Cup. Rather it may turn out to be an event in the historic pavilion in Trinity College on the 17th September 2014.

It was on that day that it was announced that the fledgling National Cricket Academy would be the beneficiary of a sponsorship that would catapult it from a low key operation to the forefront of the future of Irish cricket.

The Shapoorji Pallonji Group committed to a ten year deal that would see €2.5M ring-fenced to give the most talented young men and women every opportunity to develop their potential into the nucleus of the next golden generation of Irish cricket.

However all of the money in the world is not enough if those charged with managing the initial progression of callow youth to seasoned star do not have the ability to nurture and harness that talent. In my most recent column for CricketEurope I had expressed some concern for the future prospects of the Ireland team both in terms of fixtures but also in depth to the squad.

At the final Inter-pro of the season in Rathmines I bumped into Warren Deutrom and as often happens we had a long and wide ranging discussion which culminated in his invitation to talk to Craig Hogan who is the National Academy Manager.

A couple of weeks ago Craig and I met up and resulted in, for me at least, one of the most interesting and informative conversations about cricket that I have had for some time. Craig has just turned 55 but has the enthusiasm of someone thirty years his junior.

He is a native of Wollongong, an industrial city some 82 kilometres south of Sydney and is the 10th largest city in Australia. Few could argue that the most influential player on or off the field in the last ten years of Irish cricket is also from Wollongong namely one Trent Johnston and should Craig deliver to the same level then the future of Ireland cricket is in safe hands.

He came here having coached the Jersey senior team for four years and given the Channel Islanders strong showing during the recent World T20 Qualifiers in Ireland, including beating Hong Kong – something Ireland failed to do, he seems to have delivered.

He never played first class cricket but was the vice-captain of the Australia u-19 side and also played state 2nd eleven cricket for New South Wales for three years. By his own admission he didn’t progress because as an off-spinner he was economical but couldn’t turn the ball enough which he is adamant that you have to be able to do if you want to make it to the highest level.

The overriding sense that I got from our conversation was that Craig, and maybe because he has spent twenty years as a teacher, ensures that his role is not just about developing cricketing skills but more importantly it is about developing life skills irrespective of whether or not the students in the Academy make it to the top.

He gets vital support from the other coaching staff and in particular 65 times capped former Ireland international Ryan Eagleson, who is the Academy Performance Coach and is also the eyes and ears of Hogan when he is otherwise occupied.

At present there are thirty players attached to the Academy including five females and they range from the early to mid-teens such as Lucy O’Reilly, Gaby Lewis, Varun Chopra and Jamie Grassi to full senior internationals Tyrone Kane and Peter Chase.

Selection for the Academy is initiated by the unions who recommend players and they are then evaluated by the National Youth Coaches who track their progress and the best are offered places. However account also has to be taken of the need for succession planning in terms of the requirements of the senior teams.

The need, for example, of pace bowlers and mystery spinners in men’s cricket at international level is paramount and therefor players who fill those roles will get priority over others whose discipline is already well represented. However the best will always be selected for the Academy irrespective of whether they bat, bowl or keep wicket. Hogan is adamant that players are selected purely on merit and the regional politics of former times has no place in selecting and developing the players who will be the future of Irish cricket.

If the best thirty players in the country were all from the same region then that is who will be selected. The Ireland woman’s team is effectively a Leinster side and efforts are being made to develop the woman’s game in the other regions but the fact that all five females in the Academy are from Dublin is because they are the most talented available.

Ideally Hogan would love to have a national centre with full facilities such as indoor nets, gym, medical and physio rooms and maybe that will come if Malahide is developed as a full international ground. In the meantime he has to operate with a centrally administered – locally delivered methodology.

North County, Bready and UUJ are the centres for the three main unions but the coaches will also go to individual clubs to give one to one tuition to players. Every player has an individual development and performance program tailored to their specific requirements and they all have to keep a diary of their progress which has to be submitted on a monthly basis. This is still a work in progress as some players have a difficulty in articulating in writing how they feel about their game but they are encouraged to give their views and not be concerned about grammar, syntax, spelling etc.

However it has been found that those who deliver best in fulfilling their diary requirements also tend to be the most focused when it comes to Academy sessions. Progress is also measured at two Academy weekends where the themes for the sessions are determined by what is coming through from the feedback from the diaries.

If, for example, there is a consensus that more work needs to be done in improving mental toughness in pressure situations then that will get priority. The Academy weekends also have real value in that it brings together everyone irrespective of age or gender and Craig has observed the younger players keeping a close eye on the older players such as Tyrone Kane.

It is also intended to introduce the Athlete Management System which is now used by the senior team which incorporates physical fitness, nutrition and psychology among its disciplines. The philosophy is that you cannot play the game at the highest level if you are not fit because it will not only inhibit your performance physically but also mentally as fatigue kicks in.

What is also consistently emphasised is that you must have more than one area of expertise. Players are told that it is all very well being a fine batsman or mystery spinner but your value is greatly diminished if you are a liability in the field which if my memory serves me was also the mantra of Adi Birrell.

The key to progress is to take the participants out of their comfort zones and that is not always as straightforward as it may seem. There are some who were content to have the bowling machine set at 75 mph delivering juicy half-volleys until they were bluntly told that it is going to be back of a length at 85 mph. It certainly concentrated their minds and they developed the knack of knowing when to duck.

Craig tells the story how the girls wanted it set for 60-65 mph but he responded by reminding them that they had the world champions Australia for three T20I’s in YMCA and they had a couple of bowlers who could hit 75 mph. The girls looked at each other and Lucy O’Reilly said that she would give it a go, even though by her subsequent admission, she was petrified. When she emerged unscathed there were high fives all round.

The story has a sequel as the benefit of that session emerged in the first of those T20’s. It was for me one of the highlights of the cricketing summer when on a balmy evening in front of a large and appreciative crowd the same pint sized Lucy O’Reilly got under the skin of the world’s quickest bowler Ellyse Perry. Whatever Lucy said had the effect of Perry hurling down several searing bouncers which were either comfortably evaded or swatted away.

There can be little doubt that without the insistence of the Academy coaches to put the bowling machine up to 75 mph that tale could have ended very differently. The mantra is that you can only learn from your mistakes rather than stagnating in your comfort zone although, in the manner of Irish rugby coach Joe Schmidt, your career will be short if you keep on repeating the same mistakes.

There are frustrations for Craig as some of the players are reluctant to take the next step up by not wanting to go on pre-arranged winter spells with clubs in Australia and New Zealand. Now while there are those who have understandable personal reasons for being unable to go others, quite bluntly, don’t want to leave the closeted environment of their homes and their mothers cooking.

Craig tells another story of introducing the players to the realities of the world outside the cricketing bubble. Eight of the players went to a cricket camp in Sri Lanka for specialist sessions from Indian coaches in bowling and facing spin. On one of the days the players were put on a minibus and were only told that they were going to play a match a couple of hours away in the interior.

When they got to their destination they found that they were to play a disabled team who had all lost at least one limb in landmine explosions that were relics of the civil war. The game was played on a ground inside a prison camp which was surrounded by guards with automatic weapons. Afterwards the players were bussed to the rehab clinic were the disabled players lived and it also served as the centre for manufacturing prosthetic limbs for the region.

They met the residents some of whom had lost several limbs and yet were remarkably cheerful. On the bus journey back to the cricket camp nothing punctuated the deathly silence. Later that evening Craig asked what had they thought of the day and after a pause came the response “I will never complain about having to go the whole way to North County again”.

The key to success in the Academy is to get the players to take responsibility for their own actions. To identify those who are team players rather than those who are more interested in individual glory. Who has the mental toughness when it comes to the critical control moments that decide matches? Who relishes bowling the last over in a match or who wants to be the one that takes the strike with eight needed from the last over? Who can bounce back from injury and does everything in their power to get their place back in the team.

The players in the Academy are expected to be team leaders in the age group that they play in whether it be under 15, 17 or 19. They are measured on their progress through the club sides that they play in although that will not always be a smooth passage as the clubs priorities do not always coincide with the national requirements. Craig and his coaches try to iron out these difficulties, some with more success than others.

Strategies are instilled in the players about pacing innings, when and how to bowl slower balls, state of the art fielding drills and game management. They also got a very blunt talk from John Mooney about what it means to play for your country and more importantly what you need to do to be able to make that transition.

Players are also measured on how they handle the next phase of their development. Can they force their way into the inter-pros and then to the level beyond. However there is an issue with that level as Ireland plays very few A matches and that anomaly is being addressed.

In terms of what sort of return will Ireland cricket get from the activities of the Academy Craig frankly says that it is impossible to be certain. He is in no doubt that there is sufficient talent available at youth level to provide a steady stream of players to the top level.

His task is to ensure that the talent is properly harnessed and not allowed to wither. Only time will tell whether or not Craig and his team are successful but one thing is certain and that is it will not be for the want of effort or dedication to the task.