Six developing countries were recognised for a variety of ground-breaking projects and exceptional performances over the previous calendar year by the International Cricket Council (ICC), which today announced the global winners of the ICC Development Awards 2023.
Established in 2002, the ICC Development Awards shed attention on the cutting edge work being done in ICC Associate Member nations to expand the game internationally, be it via creative development initiatives or motivational play-related endeavours.
The Mexico Cricket Association won the ICC Development Initiative of the Year award for their innovative programmes, which included training a team to compete in the Street Child Cricket World Cup in India and implementing the innovative Cricket in Prisons programme, which involves teaching prisoners how to play cricket in order to improve their chances of rehabilitation and life transformation.
For the Cricket4Her programme, which offers women and girls special participation opportunities and a crucial road to competitive cricket, Oman Cricket won the 100% Cricket Female Cricket Initiative of the Year award.
The UAE won the ICC Associate Member Women’s Performance of the Year award following an outstanding unbeaten run that saw them win the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 Asia Qualifier in Malaysia. The Netherlands was recognised for their valiant efforts in qualifying for and competing at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in India.
The Cricket Association of Nepal and Cricket Scotland were the last winners. The former won the ICC Digital Fan Engagement of the Year award for their significant social media growth, while the latter won the Cricket 4 Good Social Impact Initiative of the Year award for their ground-breaking collaboration with the local charity Breaking Boundaries, which aims to improve the lives of young, underprivileged, and underrepresented individuals in the nation.
The ICC Full Member CEOs, past international cricket players, and ICC global partners made up the distinguished panel that chose this year’s winners from a lengthy list of regional awardees that was released back in April.
ICC General Manager – Development, William Glenwright: “For many years, the ICC Development Awards have honoured the innovative work that ICC Members are doing to raise the bar in developing countries.
Passion and creativity are at the forefront of these fruitful endeavours, and this year is no different from previous years when this project showcases some amazing and inspirational tales. These initiatives serve as evidence that our sport has the capacity to promote constructive social change in addition to accomplishing the goals specified in the ICC’s Global Strategy. It is always encouraging to be reminded of this. We should take a moment to appreciate the efforts of everyone who has contributed to making cricket more accessible to millions of people worldwide, especially the volunteers.
We are thrilled to present the 2023 worldwide winners list, and we would like to congratulate all of the winners—including the regional winners—on their achievements. This announcement was made earlier in the year. We anticipate that these projects will be successful well into 2024 and beyond.
India
