Ireland players set to receive revised central contracts along with pay raise

Dublin [Ireland], May 17 (ANI): Ireland players are set to recieve a pay rise after Cricket Ireland (CI) and the Irish Cricketers’ Association (ICA) reached an agreement on the terms of the central contract.

Last week it was reported that Ireland players had rejected an offer from the board. The players were going to play in the upcoming T20 World Cup in June on contracts that initially expired in February this year.

On Thursday evening CI and ICA released a joint statement stating that reached an agreement on the terms of player contracts and are working on finalising the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two parties.

“This agreement will secure the overall relationship between Cricket Ireland and contracted players and will reflect the best-practice relationships that exist in other Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA)-aligned countries around the world,” CI and ICA said in a joint statement.

The list of contracted players is yet to be announced but the statement confirmed that “revised contracts will be issued shortly and will apply until the end of February 2025.”

CI’s chief executive, Warren Deutrom in the statement confirmed that players secured a pay raise.

“From the inception of player payments, the Cricket Ireland board has always prioritised our senior men’s and women’s players to reward them for their huge part in driving forward the sport in Ireland. These negotiations have taken time to finalise due to the later than planned sign-off of our budget and the complexity of the new model for player contracts. However, at all times, we have been working very positively with the ICA to ensure we reached an agreement that works for all,” he said.

“The players have received the biggest share of the new money in Irish cricket this year. That is as it should be. I believe we have done our best to reward players for their hard work and success without forgetting our duty to fund the rest of the sport – particularly at grassroots, club and provincial level – to ensure we can produce future internationals as well,” he added.

Former Ireland batter and ICA President Cecelia Joyce said, “Our members have been unified throughout this whole process and the outcome is a significant one for all professional players in Ireland, and the game. It ensures greater transparency and clarity with respect to the players’ share of revenue and on contracting structures for the next period.”