Trent Johnston and Naill O'Brien during Ireland's win over Holland

The players have not received any proceeds from Ireland's World Cup exploits although they insist their protest was "not just about money".

"We haven't been getting the rewards for the effort we've been putting in over a long period," said a statement.

"We have tabled four or five issues over the past four months."

The players' statement added that they had taken the decision not to speak to the press after the Quadrangular Series win over Holland "with great reluctance".

"Nobody has done more during the last six months in the promotion of Irish cricket than the team.

"During and after the World Cup, the team has been on call to the world media at all times and have gone beyond the call of duty in our quest to put Irish cricket on the map."

We have been extremely patient with the Union but the current delay is totally unacceptable Irish players statement

On Wednesday evening, Ireland team manager Roy Torrens said the issue was a "misunderstanding" and that the Irish Cricket Union's cheques to the players "are in the post".

In response, the players insisted that it was "not a misunderstanding between ourselves and the Irish Cricket Union".

"This is our attempt to move things along and hopefully speed things up. We have been extremely patient with the Union but the current delay is totally unacceptable.

"We'd like to emphasise that this isn't just about money. While that's obviously important, there are other matters which need to be resolved and despite meetings with the UCD, little or no progress has been made.

"We'd like to stress that we all love playing for our country and we will continue to represent Ireland with total pride and commitment."

The Irish face the West Indies on Saturday and the statement added that "hopefully the matter will be dealt with as quickly as possible".

On Wednesday evening, Irish team manager Torrens said that he believed that the issue would be "resolved fine".

"The boys throught this would be appropriate action to take today because of the non-payment," added the Ireland manager.

In an ideal world, we'd love to have the boys on central contracts Ireland team manager Roy Torrens

Torrens insisted that the Irish Cricket Union and the organisation's chief executive Warren Deutrom "are working extremely hard to bring new sponsors into the game".

"After the euphoria of the World Cup, people were saying it was going to be easy to get sponsorship but the reality of the situation is that they are still as difficult to get.

"Everybody intended to jump on the bandwagon for the two months while we were in the World Cup but now we are facing reality again.

"In an ideal world, we'd love to have the boys on central contracts so we don't lose the Ed Joyces, the Eoin Morgans and the Boyd Rankins."

Last month, opening batsman Jeremy Bray refused to make himself available for the one-day internationals against India and South African because he said that representing Ireland was leaving him out of pocket.

Eoin Morgan has also been critical of match fees that players receive for Ireland duty.