Ireland‘s male cricketers have rejected central contracts offered by Cricket Ireland ahead of the T20I series against Pakistan as negotiations between the board and the players continue.
Ireland cricketers, both men and women, were offered central contracts by Cricket Ireland last week. While the women’s team are yet to decide on offer following their recent participation in the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier, the men’s team members have declined to accept the contracts.
The ICC increased their funding to Cricket Ireland in March this year, after last year’s central contracts expired. Since then, the games Ireland have played have been played under the terms of last year’s contracts which have rolled over indefinitely, with no new contracts in place yet.
Due to financial constraints, Cricket Ireland has had to re-construct their budget, which was only finalised last month, leading to a delay in announcement of home fixtures and to the contract negotiations with players.
According to a report in The Irish Times, the latest offer by the board has been rejected by the players, who have been discussing a pay raise ever since ICC announced an increase in funding late last year. Until an agreement is reached, players will continue to operate on last year’s contract terms, with any difference in salary to be backdated to March 1, when the new contracts were originally supposed to start.
Recently, Cricket Ireland announced that they needed to indefinitely postpone hosting Australia for a white-ball series scheduled later this year due to significant financial losses.
Ireland men’s team are set to start a three-game T20I series against Pakistan on May 10. That will be followed by a tour to the Netherlands where they’ll compete in a tri-series also involving Scotland, before eventually flying to the USA for the 2024 T20 World Cup, where they are scheduled to begin their campaign against India on June 5.
Ireland women, who were beaten in the semi-final of the Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier by Scotland and subsequently failed to qualify for the T20 World Cup to be held in October in Bangladesh, will next play Sri Lanka in August and England in September.
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