Forum

Coops is a great signing for CI and what a servant he has been for Carrick over the years. Change brings opportunity though and watch out for young gilmour getting a lot of runs in the premier league in 2009. Great eye for the ball and keeps the scoreboard ticking over at a good rate.

Andy, we are just working through the finer points of the contract with him, appears his grandfather had a pint of Guinness in Dublin a few years back, so he qualifies for Ireland too!!! Him and Johnny Hewitt opening the batting would be interesting!!!

Re: Stevo

Stevo, what club are you affiliated with?
Do you still play yourself?
If you do, as an ex player, I am interested to hear what grounds you think are awful?

The word on the grapevine is that the Inland Revenue will be knocking on the door of all sporting clubs, including cricket, who "employ" or in many cases, don't employ those players/coaches who receive money for playing that sport, outside of any expenses they may receive for travelling to games or training. A lot of clubs may have even less than 30p once the Inland Revenue have "paid" them a visit...

re Stevo - "the league should step in" -isn't that role of the grounds inspection committee or director of grounds or whatever the fancy title is? See my earlier postings about the umpire's ground report. Can't see the NCU forcing clubs to spend money on grounds as there are sanctions available through the ground "grading" system but the general view on this has been well aired in the past!
P.S. I see that Hayden has retired from representative cricket - has Come In Your Ma's Shoutin' made a bid yet?!!

Martin, no i havent signed for CI, i dont think their thirds need a player. But might improve the bar takings i suppose.

No i played for CI a few seasons ago

Taito.

Yeah some of the grounds are awful here and they seem to correlate with clubs prepared to pay for survival. The league should step in and make them invest in infastructure like the ECB would.

Taito;
So have you signed for C.I then?
Also heard that barry cooper has left carrickfergus for CI, thats no longer a rumour though i think thats all done and dusted after missing out on james hall.

Peter, you are backing up what i said, thanks, yes i was happy to take money from CI which supports what i said who cares who pays who what these days. Cheers mate.

Stevo, yeah i take the point about developing grounds, having good facilities and wickets should be a priority for clubs also, and bringing on home grown talent.

I think although that a lot of the guys who do get paid do a lot of work to develop the playing standards of the club, and help with coaching etc.

This topic will always have those who support people getting paid and those who dont. Both sides have good arguments i just think it should be up to the clubs as to what they do with their money.

Taito..

The issue surrounds "development". Are clubs really spending as you say to develop themselves or is this money wasted?
Should clubs not for example be investing in QUALITY wickets to encourage home grown talent to develop instead of forking out 5 figure sums to all and sundry ?

Taito as I recall you were only too happy to take money off CI

From what I hear CIYMS are lucky to have 30p never mind 30k after the Inland Revenue had paid them a visit!

stevo: who cares who gets paid what these days, i think it has become part and parcel of the ncu game that people are going to get paid , whther they be from overseas or from here. Some clubs will do it, some wont, its each clubs call, so why are so many peple hung up on clubs that want to spend money. If they have it why shouldnt they spend it to develop their club.

i think a lot of clubs are jealous of the spending power od some clubs, and other clubs just dont want to go down that route and fair play to them.

at the end of the day its eleven versus eleven and as every cricketer knows it only takes one ball to get any player out no matter how good they are or ho much they are getting paid.

re James - he again falls into the myopic trap that the word "success" relates solely to section 1 of the NCU, of which by the way I made no mention. Has he forgotten many postings a couple of years ago when Derriaghy and CI were being castigated for their methods in winning Section 2?
On the question of payments we had better be careful - there's an Inland Revenue out there!! I can recall the "handlin" that some Irish League football teams got into a few yeras ago over their "books".!!

Re price tags.

I have to say that I wouldn't have a notion about who pays players for their services. There may well have been rumours about CIYMS and Laurelvale and others I'm sure, but who can say what those figures are apart from the club treasurers and the guys who are lucky enough to be getting paid.

Re Gareth

Exactly..although Im sure a number of section 2 pros have hired guns..such as Laurelvale ?

Would be an interesting list..your top 3 spenders ?