Ireland's senior men's cricketers have earned a revised central contract with a pay raise as Cricket Ireland and Irish Cricketers' Association (ICA) came to an agreement after a period of deadlock.
As per a report in The Irish Times, the Ireland players had earlier rejected an offer tabled by Cricket Ireland (CI) and were likely to play the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and the Caribbean with contracts that expired at the end of February.
However, a joint statement released by Cricket Ireland and the Irish Cricketers' Association has made it clear that both bodies are on the same page and that the revised schedule will be released "shortly".
"Cricket Ireland and the ICA will now finalise the terms of an inaugural Memorandum of Understanding, which both parties believe is progressing very well," the statement read.
"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.
"Revised contracts will be issued shortly and will apply until the end of February 2025. Further details about the MoU and contracts will be published in due course."
Warren Deutrom, the CEO of Cricket Ireland, expressed delight at the agreement and mentioned that the negotiations took time because of "the later than planned sign-off of Cricket Ireland's budget and the complexity of the new model for player contracts".
"We are delighted to have reached agreement around player contract terms for this year. The new contract structure reflects a more sophisticated model which includes revenue share models, performance bonus agreements, and other factors we are looking to codify in the MOU we are now finalising with the ICA," said Deutrom.
"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," she added.
