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Cricket Ireland have announced that they will triple their investment from €500k to €1.5M in 2022. This investment will be used for player contracts and match fees, coaching and support staff salaries, cost of the home and away fixtures, uniforms, equipment, venue hire, nutrition and lifestyle management, talent pathway, Academy and Super Series costs.
Warren Deutrom, Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland was particularly pleased while announcing the series of measures taken by the cricket governing body.
“However, the work behind-the-scenes to get to this point has - in reality - been three years in the making. Coming off the back of the team’s performance at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2018, we – as an organisation – committed ourselves to a journey to professionalise women’s cricket. It was not only a good thing to do, it was the right thing to do,” Deutrom said as per an official release.
“Women’s cricket’s time has come around the world – we’ve seen the incredible growth and professionalisation of the women’s game across several major nations like Australia, England and India and the strong focus on female cricket in the new ICC strategy. It’s now Ireland’s turn," he added.
It is pertinent to note that Cricket Ireland has offered as many as 20 contracts this season. Have a look at them underneath:
Full-time contracts:
Laura Delany, Shauna Kavanagh, Sophie MacMahon, Cara Murray, Celeste Raack, Eimear Richardson, Mary Waldron.
Part-time contracts:
Ava Canning, Georgina Dempsey, Amy Hunter, Gaby Lewis, Louise Little, Jane Maguire, Leah Paul, Orla Prendergast, Rebecca Stokell.
Non-retainer contracts:
Rachel Delaney, Sarah Forbes, Hannah Little, Kate McEvoy.
"We are today only the second women’s sport in Ireland to offer 12-month, full-time contracts after the Rugby 7s squad – and this we are intensely proud of. If in the past our focus was primarily on men’s senior cricket, now our focus is equally on the women’s game as the shopfront for advancing our sport,” Deutrom further said.