Cricket News: Players on Ireland's senior cricket team will be paid for playing within a year, according to the secretary of the Irish Cricket Union, John Wright.

At present the ICU does not pay players appearing for their country but with the national side playing a huge amount of games over the next 12 months in the build-up to the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies, the union has accepted it needs to compensate players for the time they will be away from their jobs and clubs.

"I think this matter will be agreed and pursued going forward," Wright told The Irish Times. "Particularly for the first part of next year, it has become clear we have to compensate the players as they will be involved in so much international cricket. They will be away from work for at least 12 weeks," he said.

Wright was speaking after yesterday's launch of the ICU's Strategic Plan 2006-2009, which clearly states a desire to create a semi-professional environment for players to enjoy while on active international duty.

"With the increasing demands on the members of the senior men's squad and in fulfilment of the ICC (International Cricket Council) 10-point plan, serious consideration will be given to the feasibility of their transition from amateur to semi-professional status," says the document.

The main question honorary treasurer Ian Gourley and others within in the ICU will be asking is how the union plans to pay for it considering it has just reported a €76,000 loss for the year 2005.

"We are budgeting for a profit this year of around €100,000," said Wright. This, he said, would come from a variety of sources including increased sponsorship from the likes of Bank of Ireland as well as $125,000 (€109,000) high-performance money from the ICC, takings from the Ireland versus England one-day international in Stormont (June 13th) and an increase in financial assistance from the Irish Sports Council.

It is thought the ICU has attracted sizable once-off sponsorship for the England game from Vodafone, which is the main sponsor of the England team.

This season Ireland will play nine matches against English county opposition in the C&G Trophy as well as two four-day InterContinental Cup matches, that one-day international against England and the European Championships in August.

Then, from January 2007, the players will be effectively full-time as they go on a two-week training camp to South Africa, followed by another InterContinental Cup match in the UAE and the eight-match World League tournament in Kenya. After that they will travel to the West Indies for the World Cup in March.

The strategic plan has laid out the objectives - on and off the field - of the ICU for the next four years. This includes coming at least third in their World Cup group and qualifying for the 2011 competition. It also outlines future development of the domestic game and a strategy for ensuring the financial growth of the game in Ireland.

"The next four years represent a period of unprecedented opportunity for Irish cricket as the game moves forward into unchartered waters of an increasingly professional nature," said ICU president Stan Mitchell at the launch in Clontarf Cricket Club yesterday. "With this, a vocabulary of high-performance programmes, World Cup finals, World League, InterContinental Cup, European Championships and one-day internationals is now becoming part of cricket parlance in Ireland."

Also present at the launch was chief executive of the Irish Sports Council, John Treacy, who congratulated everyone involved in Irish cricket for the many successes in recent years. "The Sports Council has recognised that achievement in terms of money," he said. "We would like to see a greater participation now of cricket all around Ireland and not just the areas where it is traditionally strong."