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Cricket Ireland offer contracts to women for first time

by Cricbuzz Staff • Last updated on

"We are grateful to Sport Ireland for their support in investing in this important development for Irish women's cricket" - Chief Executive Warren Deutrom © Getty

In a major development, the Board of Cricket Ireland is set to provide their women's senior team professional contracts for the first time ever. The decision was announced via a press release after the recently-concluded Board meeting on December 12.

Cricket Ireland's Chief Executive Warren Deutrom was pleased with the move and said that it was a step in the right direction. "We are delighted to become one of a very select number of sports in Ireland to offer professional contracts to women players. It has been an ambition of ours for a number of years, and we now find ourselves in the position to push ahead with this much-needed improvement to our sport," remarked Deutrom.

"The professionalism shown by our senior women's team during preparation, qualification and performance at the recent ICC T20 World Cup was a demonstration that this side of our sport is ready to progress and grow."

The Ireland men's team have showcased steady progress over the years, eventually gaining Test status in 2017. Although the women's team haven't quite made rapid strides, Deutrom feels that things could go the same way sooner than later.

"Like we did with the men's side a number of years ago, we will now bring a measured approach to player contracts. A small number of part-time contracts will be offered in early 2019, with the plan to expand this programme over subsequent years."

"Once again, we are grateful to Sport Ireland for their support in investing in this important development for Irish women's cricket, enabling us to move into this exciting new period in our sport."

With the ICC opting to extend the International Women's Championship post-2021 from eight to ten teams, the board is aware of the need to give more importance to women's cricket in the country.

Performance Director Richard Holdsworth echoed the thoughts and felt that this decision could help women's cricket in Ireland to move forward.

"The International Women's Championship is an international cricket tournament used to determine qualification for the Women's Cricket World Cup, and - like Ireland's inclusion in the men's Future Tours Programme - would mean that our senior women's team will be playing some of the world's biggest teams more regularly," said Holdsworth

"As was noted by many observers at the recent T20 World Cup, the standard of Irish women's cricket has increased significantly in recent times, but so has the standard of all of the world's top teams. We need to introduce new measures like this to remain competitive against the world's best and to push our game forward."

With this decision, the board has also agreed to take responsibility for the active funding of women's cricket right from grassroots level. There will also be a strategy chalked out to make a blueprint that is expected to take the game forward in the country.

"With a broad brief to look at all aspects of women's and girls' involvement in Irish cricket - including the need to benchmark with other cricket nations/sports, and to encompass targets set by Governments and ICC - the Board agreed that the engagement of an independent, experienced consultant to develop a framework for the future of this area of our sport was essential. We will be appointing the consultant early in the new year and will begin this important project immediately afterwards," concluded Mr Holdsworth.

Cricket Ireland are also negotiating with full member nations to host a few international matches in the summer of 2019. With the Women's T20 World Cup to be held in 2020, a part of the scheduling will also lay their emphasis on the same. The fixtures are expected to be out in January 2019.

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