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Sports Council NI Support for Irish Cricket
as they move to Super Eights
With Pakistan beating Zimbabwe, Ireland are now guaranteed a place in the Super Eights – leading to an extended stay in the West Indies for the Ireland team. Northern Irish players: Kyle McCallan, Boyd Rankin, Andrew White, William Porterfield and Peter Gillespie will be able to continue playing in the later stages of the tournament with their living costs being covered thanks to the Sports Council’s increased funding.
Professor Eric Saunders OBE, Chairman of the Sports Council congratulated the players and highlighted that:
“This is a remarkable achievement for the sport of Cricket. It displays the significance of a new sporting era for the next generation of young cricketers, who have already achieved enormous success at under age levels. Their achievement demonstrates that Northern Ireland has the talent to be successful at world class level, provided the funding and support for this success is put in place. The Sports Council is committed to ensuring that other sports can also enjoy the level of success of our cricketers.
To date the Sports Council has provided over £80,000 of investment into the players and squad preparation through the Athlete Support Programme.
In addition the Sports Council has provided other support; players have had full time access to the Sports Council’s and University of Ulster’s Sports Institute, where the players experienced world class strength and conditioning facilities, sports science and sports medicine back up. Strength and conditioning supremo, Phil Moreland, who previously worked with Australian cricket captain Alan Border, is now seeing the benefits to players due to his interventions; and Media training was also provided for the team.”
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