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The International Cricket Council (ICC) celebrated the power of cricket on communities across the world to mark the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace on Tuesday (April 6).
Cricket’s world governing body announced the regional winners of the ICC Development Awards 2020, a year extremely challenging for all the member countries as they had to face the coronavirus pandemic.
20 regional winners from 17 countries with inspiring stories of cricket continued to be the driving force for a change and an inclusive sport for all were announced by the ICC in four different categories.
Associate members such as Peru, Malaysia, Namibia, Italy, Kuwait and Nepal continued their incredible work in growing the game despite the unprecedented times.
At a time of global crisis, when communities across the world are dealing with loss and new challenges, the lessons from sport – of perseverance, kinship and respect – are especially relevant. And these are the values reflected in the ICC Development Awards,
stated the ICC in a media release.
ICC noted several fine examples of how cricket played its part in assisting the COVID-19 relief acts across the globe.
The awards recognise the efforts of ICC’s member countries in the categories of ‘Development Initiative of the Year’, ‘100% Cricket Female Cricket Initiative of the Year’, ‘Digital Fan Engagement of the Year’ and ‘Cricket 4 Good Social Impact Initiative of the Year’, with one winner from each of the five regions Africa, Americas, Asia, East-Asia Pacific, Europe in each category.
These regional winners will serve as the nominees for the global awards to be announced on 20 April.
ICC Development Initiative of the Year
The regional winners in the Development Initiative of the Year category are Namibia, Argentina, Nepal, Vanuatu and Italy, who showed through their great efforts that cricket is becoming accessible to more people than ever before.
Cricket Namibia created professional development opportunities for its workforce, players, and coaches through online learning to drive home the aspired excellence during the lockdown period.
27 academic courses, including project management, marketing, risk management and leadership, were completed by seven administrative staffs. Education programmes for coaches were also high on Namibia’s priority, as 281 coaches completed various level coaching course.
Cricket Argentina developed 257 more coaches, umpires and scorers in 2020 by designing 17 free courses in Spanish. The country witnessed the launch of three new clubs from the coaches who were beneficiaries of the programme. The material for the course was made available to the rest of the region and seven other Spanish-speaking countries, who too benefitted immensely from it.
In Nepal, around 2000 women and 1900 men featured in local tournaments in the country after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and cricket returned to the passionate country, which then provided an opportunity to engage various sponsors and broadcasters through the national events.
Vanuatu Cricket live-streamed the Women’s T20 Grand Finals for the first time ever and garnered encouraging interest, with 350,000 views. The exposure of the match saw the national team visit COVID-19 impacted development programmes, where they interacted with more women and attracted them towards the sport in a set-up that now features four brand new teams.
Cricket Italy delivered the CricketMania campaign to promote the sport in the country. The campaign has had a transforming effect on the sport as it has brought cricket to a much wider range of 11-18 year olds through schools, clubs and sport body networks. The campaign helped cricket to be included in the National School Games list, which then allowed Cricket Italy to reach 8797 secondary schools and 8868 high schools.
100% Cricket Female Cricket Initiative of the Year
Recognising five engaging programmes for girls and women is ICC’s 100% Cricket Female Cricket Initiative of the Year. The award has put emphasis on those nations promoting the sport’s inclusivity for and empowerment for women.
14 professional central contracts were awarded by Cricket Brazil for players part of the women’s national team squad. They, therefore, became the first Associate Member to fully contract the women’s team before the men’s. Their initiative would help in raising the game’s profile in Brazil and would encourage as many as 2000 girls who play cricket regularly in the country.
The Danish Cricket Federation resolved the communication issue faced in bringing more young women into cricket and partnered with young female micro-influencers on Instagram to connect with new audiences, which will help in speaking to people in their preferred language. The federation also organised online digital coaching sessions for new recruits and thus, boosted the whole set-up where 50 women attended the first kick-off cricket session.
The Girls Aspire initiative in Nigeria sees wonderful use of cricket in empowering girls and creating social change. Junior girls from underprivileged backgrounds were coached in a school in Gauraka, Niger State by Ijeoma Okigbo, a journalist, who had learnt a lot from an ‘introduction to cricket’ course. As many as 50 girls joined the cricket community after the coaching process.
Delivered in partnership with the Australian Government as part of the Team Up project, Samoa International Cricket Association’s Healthy Nanas programme is an initiative that offers women and girls a platform to participate in sport and ensure a healthy lifestyle. The initiative also works as a safe space to network and discuss issues within their personal lives and community, including domestic violence, finance or health problems.
Players were used as ambassadors in Malaysia for #GirlsForGoals and #Cricket4WomensAid. They helped support online fundraising for survivors of domestic abuse and spoke of how sports had transformed their lives.
An entry-level programme by Cricket Adiwira gave women and girls the opportunity to play. The programme targeted 128 students playing in each of the 269 participating schools, including half female players.
Cricket 4 Good Social Impact Initiative of the Year
For their admirable work in using cricket as a vehicle for social change and development within communities, Bhutan, Uganda, Indonesia, Italy and Peru were recognised in Cricket 4 Good Social Impact Initiative of the Year.
Players, coordinators, coaches, and office staff from Bhutan’s 15 cricket communities volunteered at hospitals, quarantine facilities and call centres. They prepared meals, delivered food and provided patrolling to ensure that COVID-19 protocols were followed seriously among the wider public.
Helping those within their network most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Uganda Cricket Association provided food and financial assistance to 100 school teachers as they weren’t able to work because of the lockdown.
Cricket Indonesia used webinar series, created social media engagement and posted videos on how to play cricket at home to try and promote the healthy messages set out by the Government while also ensuring that cricket held the leadership position in Indonesian society. The board also made the distribution of free marks in the local community.
In partnership with Treedom, Cricket Italy officially planted 200 trees in Cameroon to help offset 11,000kg CO2 emissions produced by the Member’s operations.
With an aim to inspire movement and connection, besides also promoting the well-being of young people during the lockdown, Peru initially started as a WhatsApp group for children aged 4-14 to help them exercise at home. The programme then expanded to Zoom calls and an online summer academy for older students was also began. A teacher training course was provided as well.
ICC Digital Fan Engagement of the Year
Five deserving regional winners were celebrated for their work in 2020 with regards to the promotion of cricket activities in emerging nations and engaging fans, which plays an important part in growing the sport.
Vanuatu Cricket live-streamed the Vanuatu T10 Blast and The Women’s T20 Grand Final and via their digital platforms, reached over 16 million people. The initiative helped raised the game’s profile when it comes to the associate cricket.
Focused on the United States’ national team players and support staff, the #TrainAtHome digital campaign provided effective cricket skills-based drills to the homes of fans, encouraging them to remain active even as the strict lockdown is in place. The campaign resulted in over 1 million Twitter impressions.
Jersey Cricket Board’s ‘Fairway Super Series’ was aimed to try and provide good enough competition for promising junior cricketers ahead of national squad selection. The series replicated a modern T20 franchise event as there was an online draft conducted and match highlights were also provided to promote the event. The four-team tournament’s highlights reached a wider audience through online medium and enhanced the visibility of the teams’ charitable partners.
Being crowned an ICC Development Award winner in 2019, Cricket Namibia delivered a two-month campaign to not just celebrate winning the award but also further continue their good work. The board connected to over 300,000 people and were able to grow fan engagement for the men’s national team and Cricket Namibia‘s brand via the social media posts and radio messages used during the campaign.
Via a sponsorship programme, Kuwait engaged one of the Middle East’s top digital media companies. The result of the engagement is that Kuwait Cricket’s social media channels are now professionally managed. The focus is on creating interest for cricket heroes within the local cricket community by a comprehensive engagement programme of daily posts and updates.
The ICC Development Awards are a recognition of the work that provides people and communities the opportunity to engage with our incredible sport, with 20 brilliant programmes in 2020 celebrated,
said ICC’s General Manager – Development, William Glenwright, in the release.
During a year where so many lives and communities were impacted in different ways – and on the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace – it is inspiring to share, the stories of the regional winners that helped people to feel connected with and participate in physical activity during a time where traditional cricket activity was so heavily restricted.
We are extremely proud of what the Members achieved in 2020. Their innovative approach to delivering cricket and their unrelenting commitment to growing a sport for all, focusing on inspiring more women and girls, in particular, to get involved at all levels is something they should all be proud of. I look forward to seeing which four entries will be crowned global winners on 20 April.
