Cricket Ireland today announced a new partnership with Irish based sportswear provider O’Neills Sports. The four year deal sees O’Neills take over as Cricket Ireland’s official clothing partner with immediate effect. O’Neills will provide all of Ireland’s training and playing attire for the Senior Men’s, Women’s, Development and Underage squads as well as an exciting range of high quality replica wear for supporters.
This is a key strategic partnership for both parties with Cricket Ireland partnering with a fully owned Irish clothing supplier and O’Neills entering the International cricket market for the first time.
Commenting on the deal, Cricket Ireland Chief Executive Warren Deutrom said: “I am delighted to have secured this agreement with O’Neills. Irish cricket has been creating an impact on the world stage for many years and for the first time in our history we will do so with an iconic Irish brand as our clothing partner. O’Neills history in Irish sport is well established and we look forward to jointly taking the famous O’Neills brand onto the cricket fields globally and together enjoy continued success.”
He added: “I was frankly amazed at how quickly O’Neills were able to put together a partnership deal and deliver, to allow us to don our new kit on our tour to Kenya. I can only compliment Kieran Kennedy and his team at O’Neills for their professionalism, quality and customer focus.”
Cricket Ireland Head Coach Phil Simmons added: “The quality of the clothing provided by O’Neills is second to none. We sat down with them in January to discuss a possible deal and by February we had a full set of great quality training and playing kit for our trip to Kenya, South Africa and Dubai. The players were delighted with the new gear. The fact that O’Neills is an Irish brand and they manufacture all their cricket clothing locally makes this partnership really exciting and allows them to deliver with unbelievably fast turnaround times.”
O’Neills Managing Director Kieran Kennedy commented: “We are delighted to be associated with Cricket Ireland. As the company continues to expand we are looking at new markets. We believe cricket to be a sport that is gaining more popularity and we are actively seeking new markets especially in the UK. Cricket, alongside rugby, provides further growth opportunities for us in the UK and Ireland.”
The Irish squad will be wearing the new O’Neills range in competitive action on their current tour of Kenya starting with their ICC Intercontinental Cup match tomorrow in Mombasa. They will also be wearing a newly designed T20 playing kit for the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifying event in Dubai in March. A range of bespoke replica training and playing apparel will be launched for supporters in April.
O’Neills take over as official clothing supplier to Cricket Ireland from BoomBoom Cricket following an agreement by BoomBoom to allow Cricket Ireland to engage a local clothing supplier. Cricket Ireland is currently in negotiations with BoomBoom about them becoming their official equipment partner.