Daily Times

LAHORE: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday celebrated the power of cricket on communities across the world this International Day of Sport for Development and Peace in announcing the regional winners of the ICC Development Awards 2020 in what has been an incredibly challenging year for our Members. Across four categories, 20 regional winners from 17 countries whose inspiring stories represent how cricket continued to be a driving force for change and a sport for all – even in an unprecedented year. From Peru to Malaysia, Namibia to Italy, Kuwait to Nepal, ICC Associate Members continued their work to grow the game: empowering individuals and reaching out to new communities through innovation, determination and with great passion. There are numerous incredible examples of how cricket assisted the COVID-19 relief effort in countries across the world. The regional winners identified will be put forward as the ICC Development Awards global nominees, with four winners to be announced via the ICC channels on 20 April.

Namibia, Argentina, Nepal, Vanuatu and Italy are the regional winners in the Development Initiative of the Year category, showcasing how cricket is becoming accessible to more people than ever before. During lockdown Cricket Namibia created professional development opportunities for its workforce, players, and coaches to foster excellence. Cricket Argentina designed 17 free courses in Spanish to develop 257 more coaches, umpires and scorers in 2020. With COVID-19 restrictions lifted and cricket returning to Nepal, around 2000 women and 1900 men featured in local tournaments in the country, providing the opportunity to engage new sponsors and broadcasters during the national events. Vanuatu Cricket livestreamed the Women’s T20 Grand Finals for the first time ever amassing 350,000 views. The exposure led the national team to visit COVID-19 impacted development programmes to engage and attract more women to participate with the set-up of four brand new teams. The CricketMania campaign delivered by Cricket Italy to promote the sport has become a game-changer for the sport in the country, bringing cricket to a much wider range of 11-18 year olds through schools, clubs and sport body networks than before. The recognition created by the campaign resulted in cricket being included in the National School Games list, enabling Cricket Italy to reach 8797 secondary schools and 8868 high schools.

100 percent cricket female cricket initiative of the year: The 100 percent Cricket Female Cricket Initiative regional winners recognise five engaging programmes for girls and women, with an emphasis on inclusivity and empowerment. Brazil, Denmark, Nigeria, Samoa and Malaysia made tremendous progress in this regard.

Cricket 4 good social impact initiative of the year Bhutan, Uganda, Indonesia, Italy and Peru have been recognized for their outstanding work in using cricket as a vehicle for social change or development within communities from all corners of the world.

ICC digital fan engagement of the year: Promotion of cricket activities in emerging nations and engaging fans is incredibly important to grow the sport and five worthy regional winners are being celebrated for their innovative work in 2020. Vanuatu Cricket, with a following of only 12,000 on their Facebook Page utilized their digital platforms to reach over 16 million people through livestreaming of the Vanuatu T10 Blast and The Women’s T20 Grand Final. The fun and engaging #TrainAtHome digital campaign focused on the best of the United States’ national team players and support staff bringing simple, effective cricket skills-based drills to the homes of fans to encourage them to keep active whilst staying safe during lockdown, resulting in 1.2 million Twitter impressions. Cricket Namibia delivered a two-month campaign in celebration of being crowned an ICC Development Award winner in 2019, consisting of social media posts and radio messages. It reached over 300,000 people, grew fan engagement for the men’s national team and Cricket Namibia’s brand. Finally, Kuwait engaged one of the Middle East’s top digital media companies via a sponsorship programme where Kuwait Cricket’s social media channels are professionally managed with a comprehensive engagement programme of daily posts and updates to help create heroes within the cricket community.

ICC General Manager – Development, William Glenwright said: “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. 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.”