Racing
League
Rugby
Football
Cricket
Golf
Sport Nation
Olympics
Motorsport
Netball
Combat Sports
Basketball
Other Sports
FWC: AUS v EGY from 5am, SN ExtraMalan open to returning ‘home’ following Irish departure
Alex Chapman • July 3rd, 2026 3:43 pm
Heinrich Malan | Photo: Photosport
It was the ultimate mic drop moment.
Make history. Make some more history. Leave.
And with that departure from the Ireland men’s cricket team, Heinrich Malan’s open to returning to the place he calls ‘home’.
Ireland clinched a first ever win over India in international cricket last Saturday, with victory in the first Twenty20 at Belfast.
The win was so nice, they went twice, winning the second match two days later by one run.
“After the second one, there was a couple of nerves getting across the line later in that second game.” Malan told Sport Nation Mornings.
“But look, it was a fantastic couple of days. It's obviously the first time we've beaten India in any form of cricket, and to do that in the shortest form is pretty special from the lads.”
The former Central Districts and Auckland coach left the Aces in 2022 to coach the Irish.
But within 24 hours of the second win in Belfast, it was announced that Malan was leaving , despite his contract to run into early 2027.
“As you do, especially when you have a youngish family like I have, you sort of take a bit of stock as you get closer to the end of your contract term.
"We've obviously had a bit change of leadership as well within the organisation. We had a very good couple of meetings over the last couple of periods and pretty much just got clear that where they think we are going, and what I think is important is probably just a little bit of a difference in the vision of where we're trying to go and what that looks like.
Heinrich Malan during his time with the Blackcaps | Photo: Photosport
“Then trying to marry that up with family life, and it's obviously school holidays over here now, so it probably gives us the good opportunity to, if we need to uproot, this is the time to do that.”
Malan admitted that “for the first time in a very long time” he doesn’t have a plan, other than a holiday to his native South Africa.
He acknowledged it's an unsettling prospect.
“It's hard, to be honest with you, especially when you know that you've got some other mouths that you’ve got to feed and you want to look after your family. And we've obviously enjoyed it.
"The kids really loved it, but that's part of being a professional coach, I guess.
"I've got a couple of lines in the water and we'll see which one of those maybe wants me to come and throw some balls for them.”
Malan’s open to casting those lines back to New Zealand, where he spent almost 10 years, and led CD and Auckland to a collective six titles across three formats.
“We really love New Zealand. I've always said that I call Napier home, which is probably not what some of the Aucklanders want to hear.
Millsy weighs in on Blackcaps' heroics in England | Millsy & Guy
“We are now fully New Zealand citizens as well. So, there's a lot of good things that hopefully in time down there will come to fruition for us. And if that happens, then we are more than happy to call New Zealand home again.”
Malan revealed he also went for dinner with Blackcaps coach Rob Walter, and caught up with the players when the two sides met last month for a one-off Test, which New Zealand won by an innings and 79 runs.
While Malan conceded some tears were shed when reflecting on his time in Ireland, he does so with great pride.
Victory over England in the T20 World Cup in 2022 in Melbourne, a first-ever Test win over Afghanistan two years later, and tasting test success on home soil the same year, are among the standouts to go with the T20 series win over India.
“Straight away you sort of think about the victories or some of the trophies or the series’. But I guess it's just seeing some of the players grow and some of lads becoming men or some of the school lads coming into our system and becoming self-sufficient cricketers.
“As a coach, that's probably what you put your head down at night and you see lads take some responsibility. They take some ownership of what they're trying to do and reflect on how they're going to get better and what they try and do for the team.
If you put all of those things together, then you'll have some successful players. And if we've got players that are performing and being successful, then you tend to have a team that is doing the same.”
Malan feels, though, that if they want to take that their success to another level, the growth of grassroots and pathways needs to be a priority for Cricket Ireland, with New Zealand a good guide.
“When I arrived in 2013, originally, there was major drive from [former NZC high performance boss Bryan Stronach] around putting in infrastructure, a system, a structure in place that will feed consistent, good enough players to play for the Blackcaps.
“There's a lot of similarities with a small player pool, a small country and those sorts of things have been fed back over a period of time and hopefully the decision makers will see them important enough and put some emphasis to that.”
Listen to the full interview below:
