Global winners of ICC Development Awards 2024 revealed

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today revealed the exceptional projects and performances that received global recognition in the 2024 ICC Development Awards. Global winners were chosen from a shortlist of regional honourees from 15 countries. Bhutan, Indonesia, Namibia, Nepal, Scotland, Tanzania, the United States, and Vanuatu are the eight members who have received top awards.

The ICC Development Awards were established in 2002 to recognise the initiatives and innovative programs that are driving the growth of the sport around the world, as delivered by ICC Members in emerging nations. The 2024 awards will have seven categories for the first time, following the introduction of the ICC X Rexona Cricket Festival of the Year award.

Cricket Namibia has earned the ICC Development effort of the Year award for the Ashburton Kwata Mini-Cricket Programme, the country’s premier grassroots development effort. Cricket has been included into physical education sessions in public schools across the country, making it available to tens of thousands of pupils in 14 local regions.

For the first time, the ICC 100% Cricket Female Cricket Initiative of the Year award will be split between two Members, Bhutan Cricket Council Board and Vanuatu Cricket Association. The Bhutan Cricket Council Board is known for its “Inter-School Girls’ Competition,” a systematic project that aims to increase female participation by establishing school-level tournaments in modified formats, beginning with tennis ball cricket and graduating to hardball. Since its beginning, the project has engaged thousands of girls, many of whom have never played cricket before.

The Vanuatu Cricket Association received recognition for its “Picking Wickets” program, a hybrid form of online and in-person coaching that took place while squad members worked seasonal fruit harvesting jobs in Australia.

USA Cricket got the ICC Associate Member Men’s Team Performance of the Year award for their team’s achievement in the previous calendar year, which included qualifying for the Super Eight level of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup hosted by the United States and the West Indies. Their triumphs over Canada and a historic win over Pakistan eliminated the Babar Azam-led squad from the competition, catapulting cricket and the Men’s T20 World Cup to the forefront of mainstream American television and news coverage.

Cricket Scotland has been given the ICC Associate Member Women’s Team Performance of the Year award for great on-field achievements that resulted in the Scotland senior women’s team qualifying for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 for the first time ever. Kathryn Bryce, the captain, was voted Player of the Tournament during the Qualifier, leading the team to a historic qualification that has significantly increased interest and engagement in women’s cricket in Scotland.

The Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) got the ICC Digital Fan Engagement of the Year award. The organization’s strategic expansion across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, and their newly launched CAN Domestic Facebook accounts resulted in a total reach of approximately 117 million and an overall follower increase from slightly more than 1.17 million to more than 1.59 million, with over 420,000 new followers added.

On Facebook (CAN Official), video minutes viewed more than doubled to over 13.4 million, while the new CAN Domestic account received over 4.4 million minutes, demonstrating domestic cricket’s popularity. YouTube viewing time increased by 277% to more than 2.13 million hours, while Instagram views surpassed 40 million, capturing fans with highlights, player stories, and live updates.

The ICC Cricket 4 Good Social Impact Initiative of the Year award goes to Persatuan Cricket Indonesia for launching “Cricket for Confidence,” a national initiative to empower schoolgirls from Indonesia’s most underserved and remote regions via the game of cricket. This effort broke new ground socially, geographically, and culturally in a country of over 17,000 islands, where formal sports for rural females are almost nonexistent. More than 300 schoolgirls from five provinces took part in what was, for the majority, their first encounter with organised physical activity.

Tanzania has won the ICC Criiio Cricket Festival of the Year with Rexona for their Criiio Cricket Festival in Dar es Salaam, which brought together 120 women as part of their “From kitchen to crease” programme, which galvanised housewives, working professionals, and even retired cricketers to participate in an inspirational day of cricket and sisterhood.

ICC Chairman Jay Shah stated, “It is a pleasure to announce the global winners of the ICC Development Awards.” This is a celebration of global exceptionalism, with all recipients deserving of the recognition they have won for their efforts to expand the game in emerging markets.

“Each year, these Awards shine a deserved light on the extraordinary stories of growth unfolding around the world, and this year is no exception. We join the rest of the globe in honouring the enthusiasm, hard work, and creativity that have driven these great efforts. I want to congratulate everyone on their achievement and hope to see these programs thrive in 2025 and beyond.”

The judges for the Global ICC Development Awards 2024 are as follows:

Mike Baird (Chair, Cricket Australia), Kishore Shallow (Chair, Cricket West Indies), Warren Deutrom (CEO, Cricket Ireland), Ashley De Silva (CEO, Sri Lanka Cricket), Givemore Makoni (CEO, Zimbabwe Cricket), VVS Laxman (Director National Cricket Academy, BCCI), Samuel Badree (former West Indies men’s player), Katey Martin (former New Zealand women’s player), Cynthia McCaffrey (UNICEF India representative), Nitin Agarwal (Head of Marketing, Unilever International), Kass Naidoo (Broadcaster), Nikhil Uttamchandani (Broadcaster).

Complete winners of the Global ICC Development Awards 2024