When Beth Healy was appointed Team Operations Manager to the Ireland Women’s cricket side in May of last year, she could not have envisaged the role she is currently occupying.
ealy, who was the Northern Ireland Team Manager at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018, is the Covid-19 officer at Stormont for the contracted Ireland players who resumed training last week.
With no cricket action until the end of next month at the earliest, Belfast-based Healy has the task of making sure everything at the training camp is wiped down and ready for use by the five NCU players in the international set-up (Shane Getkate is living and training in Dublin).
“The Stormont ground is a public area so I have to cordon off the top pitch with tape and then set up zone signage,” she explains.
“We have six in all, two nets, marked zones one and two, the fielding practice area zone three, a strength conditioning area, a coned off area for the players to leave their kit and a physio zone which is operational on training days.
“Before their arrival, the players will have completed a pre-questionnaire, asking them if they or anyone they have been in contact with have been feeling unwell in the last 14 days, have they been able to take their temperature and, if so, is it higher than 38 degrees. I then take their temperature again when they arrive.
“After that, they will wash their hands, wipe their kit down and leave all their personal items. Each player has a strength and conditioning pack, including cricket balls for bowling and fielding – the coach has his own balls for batting. After each use, they are wiped down and cleaned.”
And it’s a case of so far, so good.
“It is going really smoothly,” adds Beth. “The players have taken to the new guidelines and it has just become a habit. Even after just three or four training sessions, they know what to do and don’t mind me calling them out, if they make a harmless mistake of picking up a ball which is not their own. If that happens, they have to wash their hands and wipe the ball down.
“Training is still one on one at the moment but everyone is looking forward to group training in the future.”
Not only must Beth be the first to arrive for training but she is the last away and is kept busy during the sessions as well.
“I’m always cleaning,” she says, “because there are common touchpoints you might not even realise such as tables, packets of wipes and the gates to toilets, and at the end I clean all equipment before packing up.
“It’s the same when the coaches finish as they have to clean the balls and slingers, ready for the next player. Cones, bats, helmets, pads, gloves; they are all wiped down to ensure everything is as clean as can be.”
At the moment, the players – Mark Adair, James McCollum, Gary Wilson and Paul Stirling – who are hoping Ireland’s one-day international series against England from July 30-August 4 goes ahead, plus Cara Murray, are training three mornings a week in 75-minute sessions, two at a time, with a 15-minute turnaround to clean down the stations and equipment. The other members of the Ireland men’s squad are training in similar secure centres at Bready and the High Performance Centre in Dublin, which is a five-day-a-week operation with two Covid Officers as there are more than a dozen players based there.
Murray, who plays for Waringstown Ladies, is using both facilities, in Belfast and Dublin, training at Stormont twice a week and going to Dublin for her third session to work with Ireland Women’s Head coach Ed Joyce.
Healy, who described her role with the Commonwealth Games team as a good experience – “I was in charge of all the operational aspects, flights, visas, accommodation, kitting out, team days, ensuring athletes were at the right venues” – is hoping the Women’s team won’t have to wait too long for a return to action.
“Our World Cup qualifying competition in Sri Lanka next month has been called off but has to be played before November 30 so we are waiting for info from ICC and hopefully we’ll get some matches scheduled in before then.”
Healy fell in love with cricket just two years ago, at a workshop in Botswana!
“I played cricket there as a form of team-building and realised ‘this is class’. So when I came home, I emailed CSNI (Civil Service North of Ireland), came to training and loved it. My background is in tennis so it was quite transferable. I’m not the most reliable because of my availability but love to play when I can,” said last season’s NCU Challenge Cup winner.
But, like all other cricket, the competition is on hold, although the NCU is still hopeful that CSNI will be able to defend their title this summer.
For now, though, it’s a case of stay clean, stay safe and prepare for an abbreviated season which can hopefully begin sooner rather than later.
