The International Cricket Council Academy, ICC Academy, and the Emirates Cricket Board, ECB, have announced the renewal of their partnership agreement to support the progress of the men’s, women’s and the Under-16 and Under-19 Junior UAE National teams.

The new three-year deal will see the ICC Academy hosting the ECB’s High Performance Programme, in addition to the men’s age group and women’s programmes. The move will allow ECB’s men’s, women’s and age group teams to continue having access to the ICC Academy’s facility as well as key performance staff across areas, including coaching, performance management, performance analysis, strength and conditioning, and physiotherapy.

In addition, the ECB’s entire performance programme will move to ICC Academy’s headquarters at Dubai Sports City, including their Chief Executive, development team, the National Development Manager and administration staff.

Commenting on the announcement, Will Kitchen, ICC Academy Manager, said, "This partnership will build on the foundations we have established with ECB over the past three years and enable us to further support ECB’s aim of becoming the leading ICC Associate Member. Having supported the ECB’s transition from amateur to professional status at men’s first team level, our new agreement will ensure we have in place support for the talent pipelines leading into that programme, as well as extending support to women’s cricket."

Emirates Cricket Board spokesperson, Zayed Abbas, said, "The facilities and staff at the International Cricket Council Academy are world-renowned and their record of developing players, and teams, is of the highest standard in the world of cricket. The board’s unanimous decision to renew this relationship clearly demonstrates Emirates Cricket Board’s commitment in ensuring our rapid rise amongst the ICC’s Associate member nations continues.