Sussex eye job share as Joyce opts for Ireland

Ed Joyce has embarked upon a novel job-sharing deal by continuing his county career at Sussex while accepting a role as batting coach and mentor for Cricket Ireland during the inaugural season of their first-class competition.

Joyce’s availability for Sussex sounds tenuous at best, as he also intends to play in Ireland’s Inter-Provincial series, but the county are reluctant to abandon links with an influential former captain who remains one of the mainstays of their batting.

Sussex’s coach Mark Davis referred to Joyce as “cover for our fulltime squad”, but it is highly unlikely that they would not select him automatically in the Championship, even at 38, if and when he was available, considering his Championship average of 64 last season, including a career-best 250 against Derbyshire, and first-class career average approaching 50.

Joyce’s is one of ten players to agree a central category-A contract with Cricket Ireland and his commitment not just to Ireland but the Hanley Energy Inter-Provincial Series is a fillip as Ireland attempt to arrest a recent decline and advance their claims to become a fully-fledged Test nation.

He will be based in Ireland, training with the national squad, and will also take up a specialist batting and leadership coaching role, working with the Shapoorji Pallonji National Academy and Ireland youth squads as well as mentoring some national performance squad players.

“Coming back to play full-time for Ireland and …

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