Photo Credit: Aaron Stork
The Cricket Ireland Annual General Meeting 2023 was held on Sunday, where a new President was named, the 2022 financial accounts accepted, and four new independent directors were approved by the Board – one of which is former Ireland Men’s captain, William Porterfield.
The meeting was attended by the Cricket Ireland voting members, Board Directors, the Cricket Ireland President, Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer. All recommended proposals were passed at the meeting.
FINANCIAL RESULT
The AGM noted approval of the accounts by Board resolution at its April meeting for a financial year in which Cricket Ireland delivered a deficit of €176,184, driven largely by the continued fallout of Covid-19 and significant cost rises caused by external inflationary pressures.
Andrew May, Chief Financial Officer at Cricket Ireland, said:
“Although Cricket Ireland delivered a deficit of €176K for the year, we saw our income increase by 48% to €12.9M, with a strong increase on broadcast, match day and sponsorship income after the return to full activity post Covid-19. However, while our income grew significantly, our cost base also grew by approximately €3.5M which was a combination of our largest-ever season, significant inflationary pressure and ongoing dependence on costly temporary infrastructure to deliver our fixture obligations.
“In 2023, we come to the end of our current funding cycle with the ICC and while the year will be a challenge financially, we are very optimistic about the financial stability of the organisation in 2024 and beyond. We are planning on having a deficit of €4M for 2023 which will be financed through a $5M ICC loan to see us through year and into the next funding cycle with the ICC in 2024.”
ANNUAL REPORT
The Cricket Ireland Annual Report can be found here.
APPOINTMENTS
Four new Board members were appointed at the meeting:
William Porterfield (Independent Director)
William needs very little introduction. He is one of Ireland’s most decorated cricketers, having amassed 310 caps (across all formats) for Ireland after making his international debut 2006. He ended his career as the third most capped Irish international and second-highest run-scorer for Ireland. The left-handed top-order batter from Donemana Cricket Club, struck the first of his 18 centuries for Ireland against the MCC in a one-day match at Lord’s in August 2006, before going on to register 9,507 runs for Ireland at an average of 31.07.
As captain, Porterfield led the senior Irish side an incredible 253 times. He led Ireland to two 50-over World Cups and five T20 World Cups, but perhaps his most significant moment as captain was leading Ireland Men’s team out at its historic first-ever Test match in May 2018. William is currently coaching in the UK with Gloucestershire County Cricket Club.
Martina McDonnell (Independent Director)
Martina has over 20 years of marketing and communications experience. She is currently Marketing Director with Meta, and has delivered increased brand awareness through on social media platform campaigns, cross media partnerships and industry marketing to maximise the impact of owned, paid and earned channels. Martina has also developed programme extensions to drive diversity and inclusion for women (#SheMeansBusiness), Armed Forces Community, minority owned businesses and under-represented youth.
Mari O’Leary (Independent Director)
Mari is a highly experienced executive/non-executive director, and business owner with over thirty years’ experience in the marketing, public relations and communications sector. She is the Managing Director of an independent boutique PR and marketing company (O’Leary PR & Marketing) and has a proven track record of delivering strategic counsel across a wide range of industries/sectors.
Mari has also gained extensive experience contributing at a board level including as the former Chairperson of the Public Relations Consultancy Association (PRCA) and President of Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) Ireland.
Siobhan McBennett (Cricket Leinster nominee)
Siobhan has been an important leader of the volunteer cricket community for more than 45 years. Her involvement in cricket started in her home town of Mullingar, initially as a scorer but also as a player & administrator. Her volunteer “career” really took off when she became involved in both Rush CC, her local club and Dublin University CC, where she worked. Her involvement in Rush CC has seen her operate at every level of the club. Her work as President and separately Chair saw significant advancements in the club both on and off the field. She is renowned for her administration of Youth Cricket in the club, with a special focus on Girls & Women’s Cricket. Siobhan is also passionate about inclusion within cricket at all levels.
No stranger to operating at National level, Siobhan was previously Chair of the then Irish Women’s Cricket Union and was instrumental in its amalgamation with the then Irish Cricket Union. She was Manager of the Ireland Women’s Team from 1992 to 1996, including the ground-breaking World Cup in England in 1993. Siobhan is also a highly qualified and experienced scorer/scorer tutor (at all levels) and has the distinction of having been the only female President to-date of the Leinster Cricket Umpires & Scorers Association.
Siobhan has been on the Board of Cricket Leinster (CL) since its incorporation in 2017 and has been Chair of Women’s Cricket in Leinster since 2019. In addition, she is a member of the CL Cricket Committee and is the 2023 CL President Elect, so she will become the CL President for 2024.
The new Directors will replace Michael Howard, Barry Tucker, Gary Keegan and Julie Fenton.
The addition of three women to the Board now means that Cricket Ireland will satisfy the 40% female representation by National Governing Bodies (NGB) required by Sport Ireland. The Board is also working towards delivering the requirement to have a 50/50 male/female Board by 2025.
CRICKET IRELAND PRESIDENCY
Former Brigade cricketer, William Wilson has been confirmed as the new President of Cricket Ireland following today’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), replacing the outgoing David Griffin. William was set to be announced as Vice-President, however, when presumptive President Mary Sharp had to withdraw for this year for personal reasons, he has stepped up into the President role for the next 12 months.
David Griffin, President of Cricket Ireland said:
“I was the first Munster President since 2001 and it was a very important goal for me to visit all the Munster clubs. I just about managed to fit everybody in up until the end of September. It was great to see the progress across Munster, with new grounds also coming on stream.
“My first day out in Pembroke for a T20 match saw the Ireland Women pull off a marvellous result by beating South Africa, and I said to myself – this international cricket is easy, wins will be coming thick and fast!! But it was twenty matches later until I saw my second win, and that just underlines how difficult International cricket is despite the fact that they had some tremendous performances, but it is really difficult.
“July was essentially ‘discover Northern Ireland’ month, with a women’s Tri-series in Bready – the same week as the Men were playing Afghanistan in Stormont.
“I saw parts of Northern Ireland that I never knew existed. Having been around the inter-pro and international matches on a regular basis – behind the scenes as you might say – I have a much greater appreciation of the hard work Cricket Ireland staff and volunteers do to make all these games happen. I was absolutely in awe for that period. We managed to run two major series at the same time successfully – so congratulations everybody, Cricket Ireland and the Provincial Unions for all of the work that they do.
“Cape Town, for the Women’s T20 World Cup was a great experience. I was very impressed by the South Africans, who got lots of schools to come to all the games which really added to the atmosphere. A couple of games obviously just got away from us, but we proved that we really do belong at that level of women’s cricket.
“I would also like to say a huge thanks to everybody in the Provincial Unions for their help during my time as President, and for their good humour around my various duties. My commander-in-chief Brenda Hand is not here today as she’s over in Essex for the matches next week – but my thanks to her especially.”
COMMITTEE CHAIRS
The following Chairs of Board sub-committees were notified to the AGM following their approval by the Board:
• Grassroots Cricket Committee – Andrew Fleming
• High Performance Committee – Ross McCollum
• Finance Committee – Barry Tucker
• Audit & Risk Committee – Bill Cunningham
• Governance Committee – Brian MacNeice
• Nominations Committee – Joe Doherty
• Remuneration Committee – Brian MacNeice
• Disciplinary Committee – Barry Keane
• Match Allocation Group – Ross McCollum
• Management Committee – Warren Deutrom
