Malan: Door not closed on Kevin O'Brien

New Irish cricket head coach Heinrich Malan has said the door hasn't been closed on Kevin O’Brien’s international career despite the Dubliner not being on the list of players awarded central contracts by Cricket Ireland for the forthcoming season.

O’Brien, the only Irish player to hit centuries across three different formats, was dropped from the senior squad last November ahead of the tours to America and the West Indies.

O’Brien turned 38 earlier this month, but Malan said that the door remains open.

"We’ve exchanged a couple of messages and I guess the message that I said to him was that things are where they are at the moment. I haven’t been on the ground, we haven't been able to meet face to face. That's one of the key things I’m pretty keen to do."

"No player is ever out of contention. If you perform then there’s always going to be an opportunity," he continued.

"At this stage I’m really keen to catch up with Kev, hopefully in the middle of April."

Expanding on his ambitions in the role since replacing Graham Ford, Malan said that he wants to try and make the side competitive across all formats as he prepares to link up with the Wolves squad.

Although his appointment was announced in January, the South African will begin duties this week as he prepares to fly out on Thursday to meet the Wolves squad for their tour of Namibia, and he is hoping that Ireland can fight on all fronts during his initial three-year term.

"I guess the main piece is trying to make sure that we try and become a little more consistent across formats," he said of his ambitions in the post.

"We haven't played any red ball cricket obviously for two years, we haven't played any first-class cricket in that space of the two years. That’ll be an interesting