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Can someone please clarify - do cricket ireland give any money or funding to individual clubs ?

I think the interpro set up is the right lines to go along. Gives club cricketers the incentive to perform and gives a young player not involved in the English County set up a clear pathway to progress to the international stage.

However, think the knights need to be better used. What is the purpose of playing a clubs pro? Waste of time from a development perspective. Also, while they are terrific players it is also complete waste of time playing White/Jones etc (retired internationals) in interpro games. Get the young guys in! Nelson/Shannon/Getkate/Thompson/Doc all capable of leading the team in the absence of these figures, who all still have a realistic chance of playing for Ireland. Then the rest of the team should be under 25s, Adair/Eakin/Dennison/McCollum etc.

Also agree with an earlier point about there being all lot of talent overlooked in section 1. Really there isn't a great deal of difference between bottom PL teams and Top S1 teams, only difference in my view is the quality of pro.

Think its critical the new u21s set up is used well. A lot of very talented players have been forgotten about by the set up because they aren't involved in senior knights stuff.

First it's £10k, then £100k, now I'm hearing £1.5 million over three years on top of match fees, food expenses, hotels, travel, add into that the coaches, manager, administrator, umpires fees, scorers fees, ground fees and not forgetting stays in the La Mon Hotel if you please.... Have I missed anything ?

It's a crazy world gone mad !

Jack, you were saying about who do you bring in for the knights team. What i think is the selectors (Only) look for players in the premier league. there is a lot of really good talent in league 1. League 1 is a harder league to win and get out of than the PL really.. There is 1 batsman I would say and his name is Sam Fleiming. what a class batsman to watch. #whynot?

ICC Targeted assistance and performance programme funding for the interpros is $1.5 million over three years.

Lots of talk on here about the knights and the lack of quality players but who can they bring in?

Ivan, someone with more time than me will be able to dig it out but I'm nearly sure at the time the funding was gained for the start of the interpros a few years back it was give or take a million over three years. Divide that among three unions, minus whatever admin costs were taken out of it, so 100k a year sounds about right.

Ivan,
I don't see the rank and file cricketers ever hearing exactly how much the knights costs to run, but I would say its fairly costly.........between players match fees, food expenses, hotels, travel, add into that the coaches, manager, administrator, umpires fees, scorers fees, ground fees. Not forgetting the junior knights and the interpro tournaments etc. I reckon a few people would be surprised by the figures, to coin a phrase from Andy in buckna...they ain't doing it for nowt...
Yes there will be sponsorship, however I can't see this being anywhere near enough in todays economic outlook. I was a bit surprised when I head that the u13 interpro players from MCU&NWCU (who played at moylena) were staying in the La Mon Hotel....not exactly doing it on a budget, but hey fair play to them and all involved, the kids had a blast that day, it was great to watch. Maybe they got a discount on the hotel bill?
4 day cricket in England gets very little crowds, I was at Lords for the Middlesex vrs Warwickshire match and there was more groundstaff, players and officials than spectators, and this was 3 days after 18K at the T20 blast. Boyd Rankin looked every bit as quick as Finn during the practices. Problem for Cricket Ireland is that we aren't getting crowds at any matches. Yes there was a decent crowd at Belmont for a T20, but how much of that can the knights marketing team claim...........from what I could see it was driven by the host club, and thats my personal opinion.

Phil - £100k for the Knights !
I don't know exact figures but I would have thought it was closer to £10k than £100k.

Irish cricket is NOT awash with money. I don't know how we become Test playing standard without aiming to be a Test nation.

Excellent piece from Neil Fullerton. Could not agree more. As someone who has scored in the Premier League, Section One and Section Two I must confess that the gulf between leagues is massive. In fact the gap in the Premier League can be huge at times. Where do we go from here? Well we need the clubs to work on a way ahead. The administrators in Dublin have really no idea what goes in the real world and their obsession with Test Cricket illustrates how detached they are. There are of course many within the game who have a positive impact and indeed the recent tour to South Africa by the NCU was an example of this but when one looks at the NCU, there must be many doubts in terms of how many players are ready to play for Ireland? The inter pro series are a waste of money and time. They produce a few players but these players have shown their class to be in the Ireland squad. Money has ruined the game and for what? Media coverage is poor, public interest virutually non existent and yet we pay players to come over here and take the limelight away from our local players. I heard the term hitmen being used many years ago as a means to describe professionals in the game and we have gone beyond that and are simply seeking to buy success but who is interested. Does it command back page headlines in the Newsletter. Belfast Telegraph or other media outlets? Our aim should be to maintain the local game and keep club cricket alive. It should be also to have an Ireland team that can compete in T20 and 50 over cricket as I fear the Test Cricket boat has already sailed many years ago.

Whilst I believe that the interpros are a good idea in theory, there should perhaps have to be a quota of players under the age of say 25? Test status won't be achieved for another 10 years, if ever, so what would be the point in picking 35 and 36 year olds just to win now. Have to think about the future and who could potentially be playing for Ireland if and when test status is achieved .

Good man Phil and while you're at it, throw a few pound to the Sultan of Brunei too, last time I looked the poor man was down to his last £20 billion, sure the rest of us can go without for a while yet....

Ye olde club house

An old club house set deep in the east
required refurbishment,
'Let's make it plush as we are flush'
so said its establishment

We'll import the necessary materials
from far off foreign fields,
'after all,' their ostentatious call
'our sponsors donate surplus yields'

The committee put it to the vote
the outcome overwhelming,
'we all agree on a spending spree'
so said their chairman, one Mr Bleming

So they built a fancy new pavilion
of that there was no doubt,
with bricks of clay, kilned in Bombay,
held together by Queensland grout

The timber corkscrewed and promptly sent
from the land where the coconut grows,
sedimentary slate, glossy and ornate
from a country, where it never snows

Finished in time for the new season
crowds flocked and gazed in awe,
but before the game, heavy rain
isn't that Murphy's law?

Slowly but surely and to utter dismay
the whole building began to crumble,
grout turned to soup, bricks morphed to gloop,
sagging wood, soggy roof, all took a tumble

Now the lesson learned and moral is
should you wish to rebuild or expand,
order Tyrone bricks and cement that sticks
comprised of lough Neagh sand

Purchase from Murdock's, Haldane or Killeen
for homegrown wood that's true,
slate your roof, light and waterproof
with good old Bangor blue

And with a full house at every match
be proud, that you're no lemming,
cause you sourced locally, without frivolity
unlike a certain committee, lead by one Mr Bleming!

Lemming:
noun
a small, short-tailed, thickset rodent related to the voles, found in the Arctic tundra.
a person who unthinkingly joins a mass movement, especially a headlong rush to destruction.

Ivan,
Agreed the Interpros provide the stepping stone between club cricket and representative cricket, but there are many facets of it that aren't working. The games are dull, no spectators, limited publicity, the best players are not in the teams, there are different approaches by selectors to the competition, should overseas professionals be included, have we enough teams, does the 'interprovincial' structure meet the objectives of the modern game, is the funding being spent in the right places etc etc. This comes at time when professional people are running the game and players and officials are being paid. This is not an amateur circus any longer so should we not expect a better delivery from the people involved? Also, if as you suggest, the solutions should be fed from 'below' then there is something seriously wrong up the line. The old Guinness Cup Interpros had passion and healthy competition and while the world has moved on this competition hasn't. Back to the drawing board I think.

My comment was nothing to do with the interpros per se.
They are what they are and the better players should, in my mind, always strive to play in them.
I myself had the honour of playing for Ulster Country for many years and it was brilliant to test myself against the cream of Irish cricket.
What I am saying is that Ireland - ability wise - are a million miles from Test cricket standard. And yet some people want us playing at this level now.
It's ridiculous.
We must learn to walk before we can run and at the moment we are barely crawling. Play a Test against the West Indies, Zimbabwe or Bangladesh at this moment in time and we would be hammered.
I agree the best way forward is to play in the County Championship although without the Ireland players who already play for other counties we wouldn't win a match in this sphere either.
As for the money spent on the Interpros.... well! I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.
Unfortunately senior cricket in Ireland is now all about money and absolutely nothing to do with the most important thing of all... the players.

I have to say that the idea we invest more into the premier league sides to make it more professional as this would increase support to have a limited merit, but the added support would I fear be that of people who would otherwise have been playing at a more junior level, and I don't think that is the best way to go.
We should be continuing to grow the game in primary schools with the clubs feeding in to this and getting 8 &9 year olds playing (& watching)
The gap between divisions is getting ever wider and throwing more money at the top division will only make this worse