Mark Daniel O'Leary (born 19 June 1976) is a Welsh cricket coach and former

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. He was head coach of

Western Storm Western Storm were a women's cricket team that represented South West England and Wales, one of eight regional hubs in English domestic cricket. They primarily played their home matches at the County Ground, Taunton, the County Ground, Bristol ...

in 2020 and 2021, and coached the women's team of

Welsh Fire Welsh Fire () are a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in the city of Cardiff. The team represents the historic counties of Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and Somerset in the newly founded competition called The Hundred, which took place for t ...

in the

2021 season of The Hundred The 2021 The Hundred season was the inaugural season of The Hundred, a professional franchise 100-ball cricket tournament involving eight men's and women's teams located in major cities across United Kingdom. The tournament was run by the Englan ...

. He previously played cricket for Wales Minor Counties, as well as the second XIs of

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

and

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. Prior to being appointed Western Storm's head coach, he worked for two decades at

Cardiff Metropolitan University Cardiff Metropolitan University () is a public university located in Cardiff, Wales. Formerly known as the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC; , ) which was established in 1996. The university offers degree courses in a variety of d ...

and Cardiff MCCU.

Career

O'Leary played cricket for Wales Minor Counties between 1995 and 2000, appearing 5 times in the

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship or National County Championship is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national counties (previously ca ...

, playing as a right-handed batter and right-arm

leg break Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called a leg spinner. Leg spinners bowl with their right-arm and a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery is called a leg break, which spins from ...

bowler. He also appeared for

Second XI between 1995 and 1997, and

Second XI in 2002. He played club cricket for Sudbrook Cricket Club in

Sudbrook, Monmouthshire Sudbrook is a village in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It is located 4 miles south west of Chepstow and 1 mile east of Caldicot. It lies close to the Second Severn Crossing on the Severn Estuary, and adjoins the village of Portskewett. I ...

. O'Leary has also undertaken various roles at

and Cardiff MCCU, eventually becoming head coach of the cricket team and a lecturer at the university. During his time there, he worked with various players who would become professional cricketers, such as

Jack Leach Matthew Jack Leach (born 22 June 1991) is an English professional cricketer who plays internationally for the England Test cricket team. In domestic cricket, he represents Somerset. Leach made his Test debut in 2018. He plays as a left-arm ort ...

, Rory Burns, Alex Milton and Matt Hobden. In 2018, he was named Coach of the Year by the ECB, as a recognition of his contribution to the game over two decades. In 2019, he was named as the bowling coach for

in the final season of the

Women's Cricket Super League The Women's Cricket Super League (WCSL), known as the Kia Super League (KSL) for sponsorship reasons, was a semi-professional women's Twenty20 cricket competition in England and Wales operated by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The comp ...

, which the side went on to win. Ahead of the following season, 2020, O'Leary was named as the head coach of Western Storm, leading them to second place in the South Group of the new

Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy The Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy was an English and Welsh women's cricket domestic competition, named after former England captain Rachael Heyhoe Flint, who died in 2017. The Trophy was held from 2020 to 2024, and was the premier women's 50-ov ...

in his first season. In 2020, he was named assistant coach of

's women's side for the inaugural season of The Hundred. After the tournament was postponed for a year due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, head coach

Matthew Mott Matthew Peter Mott (born 3 October 1973) is an Australian cricket coach and a former first-class cricketer. He is the former coach of the Australian Women's Cricket Team. Mott also previously coached the England men's white-ball cricket team, a ...

withdrew from the side, with O'Leary stepping up into the role in his place. The side finished bottom of the table in the

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. In February 2022, it was announced that O'Leary was stepping down from his role as head coach of Western Storm. He was replaced as head coach of Welsh Fire ahead of the 2022 season by Gareth Breese. In March 2025, O'Leary was appointed as assistant coach at Glamorgan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OLeary, Mark 1976 births Living people Welsh cricket coaches