Photo Credit: Sportsfile
Cricket Ireland has today announced that Ireland Men’s international George Dockrell has been given a full-time playing contract.
Dockrell, 29, made his debut in 2010 and had been a regular feature of the senior men’s side, playing as a left-arm orthodox spinner and lower-order batter. After being omitted from the senior side in 2020 and losing his full-time central contract for the 2021 season (Dockrell was awarded a part-time retainer contract), Dockrell has worked hard on developing his batting – re-fashioning himself into a hard-hitting middle-order batter.
At Inter-Provincial level this year, Dockrell has been unstoppable with the bat – his 12 white-ball games this season have netted 524 runs at 74.86, with a century and five half-centuries, all at a strike rate of 98.13.
His weight of runs, and the manner in which he has scored them, forced a return to the national side this summer batting in the middle order – his 45 off 23 balls in the second ODI against South Africa last month a highlight of the resurgent Dockrell’s domestic form now translating to the international stage.
Andrew White, Chair of National Men’s Selectors, said:
“George’s professionalism and dedication to his game has never been in question, however, when he lost his full-time contract Graham Ford and the selectors gave him a challenge to re-invent his game and his role in the set up.”
“We knew he had the batting potential to make it as a middle-order batter, and it has been no surprise to any of us that he accepted the challenge and has essentially turned himself into one of the best and most dynamic middle-order batters in the Ireland squad. His performances this year have been a credit to how he has handled himself – we look forward to watching George continue on this journey, and wish him all the best moving forward.”
Ireland Men’s next fixtures will be in late August against the visiting Zimbabwe team. The two teams will play five T20 Internationals and three World Cup Super League One-Day Internationals ahead of the T20 World Cup in October.
