Nepalgunj Wins ICC Development Award

Nepalgunj’s initiative in developing women’s cricket has won the global reorganization as International Cricket Council (ICC) awarded the program one of its annual Development Award for 2007 on Monday.

Cricket Development Region No 5 (Nepalgunj) picked up the Best Women’s Cricket Initiative Award. As the award winner, Nepal will receive US$ 2,000 worth of cricket equipment sponsored by world famous cricket equipment manufaturer Kookaburra.

This is the first time Nepal has picked up any award since its inception in 2002 by the governing body of world cricket to honor the best development initiatives in various fields. “This is historic award not only for cricket, but also for the whole sports sector,” LB Chhetri, the chairman of the regional development committee, said. “We are very happy and proud.”

Chhetri, the former national captain and the man behind training and organizing the girls cricket in Banke, thanked his team members, local supporters and media for the award. “This is made possible by the team effort of everybody involved directly or indirectly,” Chhetri, a member of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), added.

Region No 5 trained school girls and organized the first ever girl’s tournament three years ago in Banke. The third edition of the inter-school tournament has just completed with 15 teams participating. “This was the first with leather ball,” Chhetri said. Currently the estimated number of cricket playing girls in the region is 1,000.

CAN president Binay Raj Pandey called the award a ‘big achievement’. “This is of course an achievement for us,” he said. “This is an encouragement for us to consolidate the women’s cricket and international participation.”

Nepal is set to participate in the inaugural Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Women’s Cricket Tournament scheduled for July in Malaysia. The event will feature China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UAE and most probably Bangladesh. Earlier in February, Nepalgunj won the ACC Development Award for the same program which made them one of the five nominees of the Global Award.

Meanwhile, Canada and Uganda each picked up two awards, making them the big winners of this year’s competition. Canada was awarded the Best Junior Cricket Initiative for the Ontario Junior Program and the Best Cricket Promotional and Marketing Award for the CIMA Canada – ‘Celebration of Cricket’.

Rebecca Alwaya won the Volunteer of the Year Award for her outstanding contribution to the game in Uganda while the Photo of the Year Award featured a wonderful shot of Ugandan cricket. Nigeria’s Father of Cricket Dr John Abebe from Nigeria won the Lifetime Service Award. Singapore won the Best Overall Cricket Development Program while the Best Spirit of Cricket Initiative in Partnership with UNAIDS was won by Cricket Fiji for its ‘Run out AIDS day’.

One of the judging panel for the Awards was ICC President Percy Sonn and he was full of praise for all the winners, as well as the nominees. “This whole process has once again shown the outstanding work being done in the development of cricket around the world,” said Sonn. “It was immensely difficult to select the winners but those lucky enough to have been chosen reflect the contributions they have made to our wonderful worldwide sport.”