From the 20 regional winners across the four categories announced earlier this month by International Cricket Council (ICC), Cricket Boards of Argentina, Brazil, Uganda and Vanuatu have been chosen as the global winners owing to their outstanding contribution to the sport through four exceptional programmes in 2020. The winners were identified by a global independent panel consisting of 12 leaders including ICC Full Member Chief Executives, current and former international players, media representatives and other members of the cricket family.
The global award for the ICC Development Initiative of the Year has been awarded to Cricket Argentina for producing 17 coaching, umpiring and scoring courses in Spanish to attract local audiences in South America to cricket. The programme, which was moved online due to the pandemic, resulted in 257 new coaches and provided people with an opportunity to participate in a new sport.
Cricket Brazil has been awarded the 100% Cricket Female Cricket Initiative of the Year after taking a huge step forward in the development of the women’s game in South America by awarding 14 professional central contracts to the women’s national team. Later this year Brazil will return to ICC women’s competition for the first time since 2012, when they participate in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier; a qualification event to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023.
The ICC Digital Fan Engagement of the Year has been awarded to the Vanuatu Cricket Association for providing cricket to fans during the pandemic when the Women’s T20 Grand Final was the only live sporting event available. Vanuatu with a population of only 300,000 used the opportunity to reach over 16 million people through live streaming of the Grand Final and the Vanuatu T10 Blast. This has resulted in more people engaging with the sport and cricket participants in Vanuatu.
The Uganda Cricket Association has won the Cricket 4 Good Social Impact Initiative of the Year for supporting hundreds of their players, volunteers and their families through a COVID-19 relief programme. By November 2020, 1500 people had benefitted by the relief which had reached players, coaches, umpires and school teachers in the form of food, soap, financial aid, psychological support and an invite for people to take part in online courses on financial literacy.
ICC General Manager – Development, William Glenwright said in the official press release “The 2020 ICC Development Awards have showcased some incredible projects delivered by the Members during an extremely challenging year, with 20 regional winners already celebrated earlier this month.
“Argentina, Brazil, Uganda and Vanuatu have now been chosen as the global winners for 2020 by a panel of cricket’s global leaders. We celebrate four inspiring stories that have made a difference to people and local communities during a pandemic, getting more women and girls into the sport and taking the excitement and competitive nature of Associate cricket to a global audience.
“We are committed in partnership with the Members to build on the momentum achieved over the past 12 months and continue to get more people engaged with the sport and make a difference to the lives of those who enjoy cricket. These rewards are a celebration not only of the global and regional winners but of the work of all our Members who continue to work so hard to bring the joy of cricket to the world during the pandemic”
Gobal Independent Panel
Pholetsi Moseki (Interim CEO, Cricket South Africa), Dane van Niekerk (current South Africa women’s team captain), Johnny Graves (CEO, Cricket West Indies), Peter Della Penna (correspondent at ESPN CricInfo), Wasim Khan (CEO, Pakistan Cricket Board), Irfan Pathan (former India men’s team player), Nick Hockley (Interim CEO, Cricket Australia, Daniel Beswick (correspondent at Emerging Cricket), Warren Deutrom (CEO, Cricket Ireland), Beth Barrett-Wild (ECB – Head of the Women’s Hundred & Female Engagement), Karren Rogers (Facebook) and Geetanjali Master (UNICEF)
