Ireland look to semi-professionalism

Ireland are considering offering some of their players semi-professional contracts in an attempt to ensure that their World Cup success is built upon.

"The question that raises its head now is can we continue to have the players as amateurs?" ICU chief executive Warren Deutrom told the Sunday Tribune. "We have to consider semi-pro contracts. The details are sketchy as to which players, for how long, and so on but it's something in our minds. It's important we have players a national coach can call on, on a day-today basis and haemorrhaging our best players to England is no longer good enough so we have to have our best players available full time.

"We had a time frame looking at 2009 and now that's been booted out due to our success. The details are sketchy as to which players, for how long and so on but it's something on our minds." Ireland reached the Super Eights in the Caribbean, but they have struggled to field their best sides since as some players have county commitments while others are struggling to get the time off after almost three months away from work before and during the World Cup.

The biggest issue, however, is cash. Ireland receive only $90,000 from the ICC plus another $125,000 in the form of a high-performance grant. This barely covers basic running costs, and so any money for player contracts will have to come from sponsorship or TV income. "You see, the World Cup money didn't boost our coffers," Deutrom said. "We received $15,000 as a participation fee and after going further all of the monies came as a bonus and will be paid to the players."

However, last week Deutrom announced that Ireland would play ODIs against South Africa and India in June, and there is also a quadrangular one-day series - featuring West Indies, Scotland and Netherlands - penciled in for July. These will produce significant income for the Irish Cricket Union.

Deutrom admitted that the crowds for Friends Provident matches in the first month of the season have been disappointing. "We have to look at how they were marketed but at the minute we have to prioritise because we have very tight finances and we would much rather publicise games against India and South Africa. The county games are not our priority."