Leeds Met Carnegie, part of Leeds Metropolitan University , has an unrivalled reputation for excellence in sport and education and was recently named as The UK Centre for Coaching Excellence.
The ICC Twenty20 World Cup qualifiers in Belfast which run from August 2-5 will be branded as the ‘Carnegie Carnival of Cricket’. The three qualifying countries from this event will play in the Twenty20 World Cup finals which are being held in England in 2009.
Also the European Championships, which started last Friday, will see Ireland ’s recent ODI with The Netherlands and today’s match against Scotland being supported by Leeds Met Carnegie.
On August 12th, the ODI with Canada at Clontarf will be known as the ‘Carnegie Challenge’, while the ODI series with Kenya in Belfast in late August will see both teams competing for the ‘Carnegie Cup’.
The link between Leeds Met Carnegie and Cricket Ireland is strong as current Irish captain, William Porterfield, recently graduated from the University. He was clearly enthusiastic about the new partnership, “It is a fantastic sporting university, with wonderful facilities and resources available. You are given every opportunity to improve and excel. It’s great to see Leeds Met Carnegie and Cricket Ireland coming together. I’m sure it’ll be a great partnership for both bodies.”
Professor Simon Lee, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Met, said, “''Cricket Ireland and Carnegie share a commitment to sport at all levels, to Celtic roots and to pioneering partnerships so we are delighted to join forces. We have been enormously impressed by the drive behind the leadership of Cricket Ireland , following on from the way in which the team made such an impact in the World Cup. It is great to see our recent graduate, Will Porterfield, captaining at the highest level. We also appreciate the way in which Cricket Ireland is thinking of helping provide competition for our own university women's team. We both want to take sport and coaching beyond boundaries.”
Cricket Ireland Chief Executive Warren Deutrom said, “We are delighted to welcome Leeds Met Carnegie to our family of partners. They have come on board at an exciting time for Irish Cricket, with the European Championships underway in Dublin and the inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup qualifier in Belfast this weekend.
Cricket Ireland has been hugely impressed by Leeds Met Carnegie, in their commitment to excellence, their desire for interactive partnership and, of course, their passion for the game of cricket. We very much look forward to working with them over the coming weeks and, we sincerely hope, for many years to come."
Genesis Director Brian MacNeice said “We were very pleased to reach this agreement with Leeds Met Carnegie. The partnership is very exciting and has the potential in the long-term to develop further. We are already looking at options to grow the relationship between Cricket Ireland and Leeds Met Carnegie.”
