International Cricket Council (ICC) have announced the winners for both the 2021 ICC Development Awards, along with the Men’s and Women’s categories winners for the Top Associate Performances of the year.
Cricket Namibia (Men’s team) and Thailand Cricket (Women’s team) have been awarded the Associate Performances of the year awards for 2021. Namibia’s performance in the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in UAE/Oman resulted in them winning the award, while Thailand’s performance during the group stages of the Women’s World Cup Global qualifier in Zimbabwe (which was curtailed due to rise in Omicron-variant cases of COVID-19 pandemic) resulted in them winning the award.
Dr. Rudie van Vuuren, President, Cricket Namibia said: “For a country with the most geographically dispersed 2.5 million people in the world and selecting our national side from only five premier league teams; to perform at this level requires a special ingredient. This special ingredient lies in the people of Namibia and the way cricket is run, played, and lived. Thank you to the ICC for recognising our achievements, these awards will enable us to grow the sport we love and live for.”
Shan Kader, Cricket Development Manager, Cricket Association of Thailand said: “We are extremely happy to receive this award for the ICC Associate Member Women’s Performance of the Year. It is a testament to the hard work and dedication that the girls, coaching staff, and the Cricket Association of Thailand have put into achieving these milestones time and again. We will keep pushing the boundaries to achieve excellence and inspire a new generation of Thai cricketers and new regions with similar demographics to push the envelope and make cricket a bigger and more global game.”
Other Development Award winners have also been announced. Cricket Namibia have won the “ICC Development Initiative of the year” award for conducting the Ashburton Kwata mini cricket program in the schools across the country. Cricket Estonia have won the “ICC Digital Fan Engagement of the year” award for their multi-platform social media strategy initiatives.
Stuart Hook, President, Estonia Cricket Association said: “It is a huge honour to win the ICC Digital Fan Engagement Award. We are extremely excited and almost couldn’t believe it. This is a massive boost for us and really gives us that shot of adrenaline to get back to it, to push harder and spread the word of cricket in Estonia as wide and far as we can.
“This reinforced the fact that even though an association maybe considered small, the digital exposure to cricket in your country can be seen as fun, exciting, engaging and most importantly expose cricket as a viable sporting option – especially in non-traditional markets.”
Nigeria Cricket have won the “The Cricket4Good Social Impact Initiative of the year” award for showcasing cricket as a support vehicle for internally displaced people in the country.
Uyi Akpata, the President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation said: “With a couple of thousand introduced to the game, and a boys and girls team involved in the State’s secondary schools’ tournament, we have seen cricket largely contributing to addressing the issues of integration and inclusion of disadvantaged children in the country. On behalf of the almost 2,000 students in the Benin IDP Camp and two million children in various camps, we accept this special recognition.”
Bahrain Cricket have won the “100% Female Cricket Initiative of the year” award for development of their Women’s team in 2021 and taking part in their maiden event during the GCC Women’s T20I Tournament held in Oman earlier this year.
Gurumurthy Palani, Committee Member of the Bahrain Cricket Federation remarked: “BCF is grateful to the ICC for conferring the prestigious 100% Cricket Female Cricket Initiative of the Year Award and recognising our efforts to drive women’s cricket in Bahrain. We are thankful to the ICC Asia office for their guidance and continued support.
“This award is going to have a tremendous impact in achieving our goals of advancing women’s cricket in Bahrain, and will turbocharge our growth by attracting more females to play cricket in the country.”
