Cricket Ireland to offer professional contracts to women

The Board of Cricket Ireland has endorsed the motion after a recommendation was accepted at a board meeting on December 12

For the first time, Cricket Ireland will be offering professional contracts to women. 

The Board of Cricket Ireland has endorsed the motion after a recommendation was accepted at a board meeting on December 12.

Initially a "small number of part-time contracts" are set to be handed out in early 2019.

Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland, Warren Deutrom, said:

“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.

^{Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland, Warren 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.”

“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.”

The next ICC International Women’s Championship will expand to 10 (from eight) teams. With Ireland currently ranked 10th in the world, the Board stated that it "realises the opportunity is within Irish cricket’s grasp to cement a place when qualification comes around."

Richard Holdsworth, Performance Director of Cricket Ireland, added:

“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.”