Should that canny Irish National Coach Phil Simmons require any inside knowledge when England come visiting in little over a month's time, he need look no further than the man who will have just jumped ship.

Mark Garaway will be only 10 days into his job as Cricket Ireland's Director of Cricket Operations when England hot-foot it from the Ashes series to the one day international against Ireland at Stormont on August 27.

Three years ago the two countries played their first ever international at the same venue and the 35 year old Garaway was very much in the visitors' dressing room as right-hand man to the England coach of the day, Duncan Fletcher.

He was an assistant coach to Fletcher, specialising in intelligence both on opposing players and venues as well as the preparation of technical analysis on his own players.

'I remember the game very well', he tells me. 'England narrowly won it, largely due to Marcus Trescothick who was on top form. But for that, England would have lost that day to a fantastic fielding side and a excellently organised unit coached by Adi Birrell.'

Birrell, of course, handed over the reins to Phil Simmons immediately after the World Cup of 2007 but is now back in the fold as a consultant working with the 'A' team and other players of the future.

And Cricket Ireland's chief executive Warren Deutrom hits the nail on the head when he observes that Garaway working in tandem with Birrell and Simmons 'makes a serious statement about the ambitions for the sport in Ireland.'

In a nutshell, Garaway's job covers the waterfront. He will carry responsibility for the development, implementation and continued evolution of both high performance and grassroots programmes across the country. And he has no doubt what his relationship with Simmons will be.

He says : 'I will be very much supporting Philo with the senior team. Phil is the main man and a fantastic coach. I will be doing everything I can to provide support in scheduling, staffing and training facilities to give him and the team the best possible chance of reaching their goals in the coming years.

'I will also be overseeing the systems below the senior side. It's essential that the players coming through are well prepared for the rigours of international cricket - ultimately they will be the players who will win us ODIs and, hopefully, Test matches in the future so it's vital that the system sitting beneath Phil and his team is strong.'

A wicketkeeper who won but a handful of first class games with Hampshire, Garaway may not have made it on the field but certainly has off it.

He served under three England coaches in quick succession - Fletcher, whom he describes as 'the best on the planet' at his trade, Peter Moores who came a cropper as a result of dressing room politics and currently Andy Flower. And before that he had a thorough grounding in the ways of youth, club and county cricket, mainly in Hampshire and Somerset.

He observes : 'The benefit has been that I have seen how each level of cricket needs to be linked to the one above it in order to ensure there is a seamless transition to travel up and into international cricket. Cricket Ireland has an almost unique opportunity to link up all the initiatives and schemes in this manner.'

Garaway's first experience of Irish cricket was in the early part of the decade during a European Cricket Council conference in Belfast and he was 'taken by the players' talent and the passion of the coaches.'

Then came the game at Sormont, followed by the World Cup the following spring in the West Indies.

He reflects: 'The English squad, including myself, became quite close with the Irish lads since we spent a lot of the competition in the same hotels. I was impressed by the professionalism, team spirit and quality of Ireland's play during the whole tournament.

'Since then I have kept an eye on Ireland's fortunes and the recent success in the World Twenty20 came as no surprise.'

The trick for Cricket Ireland will be to define clearly everyone's role as it heads increasingly down the road of professionalism.

In Mark Garaway the organisation has its first ever Cricket Operations Director, reporting directly to the Chief Executive. It's a sensible managerial route and one that deserves to succeed.