| Assocname: | Cricket Leinster |
| Logosize: | 170px |
| Sport: | Cricket |
| Founded: | 1890 |
| Aff: | Cricket Ireland |
| Location: | Leinster Region |
| President: | Siobhan McBennett |
| Chiefexec: | Philip Smith |
| Coach: | Andre Botha |
| Key Staff: | George Dockrell (Leinster Lightning captain) |
| Abbrev: | CL |
| Headquarters: | Ballsbridge |
| Url: | www.cricketleinster.ie |
The Leinster Cricket Union, also known as Cricket Leinster, is one of five provincial governing bodies for cricket in Ireland.
Along with the Northern, Munster, Connacht and North West unions, it makes up the Irish Cricket Union (now known as Cricket Ireland), the overall governing body of Irish cricket.
The Leinster jurisdiction covers counties in the traditional Irish province of Leinster in the Republic of Ireland. In 2005, there were 40 clubs fielding 97 teams affiliated to the union.[1] There are currently 48 clubs affiliated to the Union, this includes Cork County, Cork Harlequins and County Cavan who play in Leinster competitions despite not geographically being in the province.[2]
The Union was founded in 1890 as the "Leinster Branch of the Irish Cricket Union".[3] Initially, there was strong resistance to competitive cricket and the Leinster Senior League and Leinster Senior Cup did not start until 1919, although junior clubs competed for the Intermediate Cup from 1895 and a schools league began in 1906.[4]
In 2013, Cricket Ireland formed the Interprovincial Championship, Cup and Trophy competitions featuring teams from Leinster, the NCU and the North West. The Leinster team is known as Leinster Lightning. Lightning are the most successful team in the competitions' history, winning 21 of a possible 29 trophies.[5]
In 2017, Phillip Smith was elected to the role of General Manager as part of the revamped Executive and has retained the role ever since.[6] Simon Dyke was appointed to the role of Cricket Operations & Administration Manager in 2020, replacing Kevin Gallagher.[7]
The Cricket Leinster Board oversees a number of committees which are responsible for different governance areas.
The current members of the Board are: