Brazil, Denmark, Samoa, Nigeria and Malaysia are the regional winners for ICC Awards

Cricket Boards of Brazil, Denmark, Samoa, Nigeria and Malaysia have been announced as the regional winners in the 100% Cricket Female Cricket Initiative of the Year category, who have developed engaging programmes for girls and women in their respective countries, with an emphasis on inclusivity and empowerment in the ICC regions of Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe and East Asia-Pacific.

The awards were announced on International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. All the regional winners will be nominees for the ICC Global awards, which will be declared on 20th April on ICC social media profiles and website. Here are the winners and their initiatives as documented in the official ICC press release.

• Cricket Brazil awarded 14 professional central contracts to the women’s national team, becoming the first Associate Member to fully contract the women’s team before the men’s, raising the status of the game in Brazil and benefitting 2000 girls who play regularly.
• The Danish Cricket Federation identified that if they wanted to bring more young women into cricket, they had to speak to them in their language and listen to what they wanted. They therefore partnered with young female micro-influencers on Instagram to connect with new audiences. The energy and passion they brought into the social media campaign was carried over into online digital coaching sessions for new recruits and revitalized the ecosystem where 50 women attended the first kick-off cricket session.
• In Nigeria, the Girls Aspire initiative uses cricket as a tool for girls’ empowerment and socio-cultural change. Ijeoma Okigbo, a journalist, took what she had learnt from an ‘introduction to cricket’ course to a school in Gauraka, Niger State, and coached junior girls from underprivileged backgrounds. The 50 girls, who have gained confidence and respect, have become part of a cricket community.
• Samoa International Cricket Association’s Healthy Nanas programme is an initiative delivered in partnership with the Australian Government as part of the Team Up project. It offers women and girls a platform to participate in sport and ensure a healthy lifestyle, while also serving as a safe space to network and discuss issues in their personal lives and community – be it domestic violence, finance or health.
• In Malaysia, players were ambassadors for #GirlsForGoals and #Cricket4WomensAid, where they supported online fundraising for survivors of domestic abuse and spoke of how sports had transformed their lives. The Cricket Adiwira entry-level programme provided the opportunity for women and girls to play, setting themselves the target of 128 students playing in each of the 269 participating schools, with at least half of them female.