ICC Europe glances back to 2013

It was a busy year for ICC Europe, with lots of activity in the European region. There were lots of

highlights this year, the Regional Support Programme continued in 2013 and the introduction of the

Street20 programme. It was a strong year for ‘Performance’ also with Ireland winning a hat-trick of

titles, which included the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Championship (WCLC) and the ICC World

Twenty20 Qualifier. There was significant development within other areas of the Pepsi ICC

Development Programme Strategic Operations; Promotion, Women’s Cricket and Governance and

Administration. Change was also evident in the region with Philip Hudson and Louise Kent leaving

after nine years service.

Regional Support Programme for 2013 was to provide sustainable foundations and a clear pathway for players. Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Scotland, Finland, Estonia, Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Spain all used the regional support programme to roll out cricket programmes in country. Lighthouse Club- Dansk Cricket Forbund used four clubs as ‘lighthouse’ clubs to set an example of good practice for the development of other clubs within Denmark. Schiedam- which means ‘city of cricket’ hosted a week long cricket programme, it was run by the KNCB and involved working with multiple organisations together to promote the sport. Cricket was run on the Johan Cruyff and Richard Krajicek courts with local businesses financially sponsoring the week’s programme which introduced street cricket, cage cricket, girls and women’s cricket. Care Home- Guernsey Cricket Board started a Table Cricket initiative in local care homes and disability organisations, targeting over 300 people. Cowal Highland Games- First held in 1894 the Cowal Highland Gathering is the biggest, most spectacular Highland games in the world. Cricket Scotland in partnership with Cricket Factory utilised the Cricket Factory rig to provide participants the opportunity to perform a variety of cricket activities and challenge all of the core skills: batting, bowling, throwing, catching and cricket related movement.

Street20- Six Member countries launched their own Street20 project in 2013, supported by ICC

Europe, the member countries that took part were Finland, France, Germany, Hellas, Netherlands

and Spain. Two successful examples of the programme are:

Germany:

* In Bielefeld, the initiative has been used to integrate Asian asylum seekers into German life and

has led to the formation of two cricket clubs in the local area.

* Women’s teams have evolved from Street20 and they will be integrated into existing hard ball

women’s structures for the 2014 season.

* 600 young people were reached by the end of 2013.

* Media coverage has resulted in a segment on local television.

Netherlands:

* Working with the local community sports organisations and educating their coaches in order for

them to deliver Street20 sessions.

* Street20 has been played in Amsterdam, Schiedam, Nijmegen and Tilburg during 2013, with

activities in local schools and communities.

* Looking to expand into other areas such as Rotterdam, Den Hague and Utrecht in 2014.

* By September, Schiedam had involved over 650 participants and Nijmegen had over 250, totalling

over 900 in these two areas.

There were 3 regional ICC Europe tournaments that took place in 2013.

Pepsi ICC European Division 1 was won by Italy, with Denmark runners up and

resulted in both qualifying for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the United

Arab Emirates in November 2013.

Pepsi ICC European U19 Division 1 World Cup Qualifier was hosted in the

Netherlands and won by Scotland who therefore qualified for the ICC U19 Cricket

World Cup 2014.

Pepsi ICC European U15 Division 1 was hosted by Rugby School, England and Ireland was victorious.

There were key global events in 2013 with significant

performance for European members. Ireland

completed a hat trick of titles, the 50-over Pepsi ICC

World Cricket League Championship (WCLC), the ICC

World Twenty20 Qualifier and reclaimed the ICC

Intercontinental Cup crown; it was the first team in the

history of the sport to win three ICC tournaments of

three different formats in a calendar year.

Ireland women’s defeated Netherlands women’s by 1 run in the 3rd/4th place play off in the ICC

World Twenty20 Women’s Qualifier in Ireland to qualify for the ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh

in 2014.

Italy finished 6th in Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 3 and were relegated to Division 4.

Jersey won Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 6 and has been promoted to Division 5.

Germany finished 6th in Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 7 and has been relegated out of

Pepsi ICC World Cricket League.

Broadcast in partnership with - In 2013 ICC Europe streamed the Pepsi ICC European

Division 1, with a highlights package for each day’s play and live streamed the Finals Day at Hove,

Sussex, England.

A marketing campaign was put together to encourage as many people to the Finals Day on July 13 as

possible; it included a poster and free of charge voucher. 30,000 vouchers were posted to the

surrounding area leading to over 10,000 people attending the day.

During ICC European Division 1 there were plenty of activities which ran alongside the tournament.

Denmark, France, Germany, Isle of Man and Jersey visited local primary schools in the Horsham and

Crawley area, which included skill classes, playing in mini games and engaging with the students

educating them about cricket across Europe.

Talk Sport radio aired coverage of Pepsi ICC European Division 1 and spoke with Denmark’s Freddie

Klokker about the development of the game in Europe and the importance of the tournament.

Ireland Women’s cricketer Clare Shillington spoke with Talk Sport during the ICC Women’s World

Twenty20 Qualifier in 2013 to talk about women’s cricket in Ireland.

Social media has developed dramatically in 2013 with members using Facebook, Twitter

and YouTube to great effect with numbers and engagement increasing.

6,200 playbacks of the live coverage

Watched in 63 countries, from every

continent (except Antarctica).

Largest audience was in Denmark,

followed by GB, Jersey, Guernsey and

Italy.

Over 120,000 viewer minutes, with an average viewing time

per user of 20 minutes.

Over 35,000 viewer minutes.

16,000 playbacks of the highlights

packages, with largest audiences in GB,

Denmark and Belgium.

85% male viewers

15% female viewers

45% watched on a mobile

device

*Numbers are as end of 2013.

25% increase in likes to Member country accounts in 2013.

Pepsi ICC Development Programme Awards 2013

Best Overall Cricket Development Programme- Cricket Scotland- After having an extremely strong year in a number of different areas the Overall Development Programme award was won because of the following activities. The Summer Squad pushed forward in its second year, the Cowal Highland Games in partnership with Cricket Factory, 74 come and try events were hosted across the country with 3128 attending with the most visual being at the Scotland v Pakistan ODI. Best Junior Participation Initiative- Schiedam Cricket Stad (City of Cricket) - KNCB- The Schiedam Cricket Stad, ‘city of cricket’ project involved working with multiple organisations together to promote the sport of cricket in Schiedam won the best Junior Participation. Cricket was run on the Johan Cruyff and Richard Krajicek courts with local businesses contributing through financial sponsoring in a week long programme introducing street cricket, cage cricket, girls and women’s cricket. Best Women's Cricket Initiative- Ulster Development Initiative- Cricket Ireland- The ‘Best Women’s Cricket Initiative’ was for the girls and women's cricket participation programme in the north of Ireland. The Ulster Development Initiative included working with a variety of partners to ensure sustainability and success at all levels involving schools, clubs, regions and the international environment - and it has been an unqualified success in 2013. Best Cricket Promotional and Marketing Programme- The RSA Challenge Ireland v England - Cricket Ireland- Awarded for the Ireland v England ODI marketing campaign as the largest and most successful cricket match ever hosted in Ireland with an attendance of 10,000 and broadcasted globally by BSkyB. Photo of the Year- Marta Marzal- Cricket Espana Lifetime Service Award- Mary Sharp- Cricket Ireland- As a volunteer she has served cricket in many capacities, including, President of Pembroke Cricket Club for three seasons, the current Honorary

Twitter - Top 10 followed accounts

Ireland

Scotland

Netherlands

Germany

Gibraltar

Sweden

Denmark

Guernsey

Jersey

France

Secretary of the Leinster Cricket Union which as a demanding role she has fulfilled with outstanding loyalty, enthusiasm and diligence for many years. Volunteer of the Year- John Dye- Cricket Espana- John Dye has worked tirelessly in his role of Chairman of the East Coast and Central League. His role required him to co-ordinate the league for the Premier Division and the Development league from Valencia to Almeria and across to Madrid. Best Spirit of Cricket Initiative- Table Cricket- Guernsey Cricket Board-The Table Cricket initiative was rolled out in local care homes and disability organisations. The success of the venture has been phenomenal and to date has worked with over 300 people across the island including the Headway Group, the Alzheimer's Society and the Cheshire Home.

Cricket Ireland’s development and expansion of Girls and Women’s Cricket in the North of Ireland has shown great growth of the game in those areas in 2013. Their aim is to build the Women’s game in Ulster in order to match the state of the game in Leinster. The desire running a strategically successful and effective participation programme for Girls and Women in the North of Ireland, the targeting of new areas for cricket development has resulted in the coining of the phrase ‘Super Areas’. These selected strategic hot spots across Ireland will become the focus for development activities. Creation of four ‘Super Areas’ in order to focus resource and implement a Player Development Programme. These areas will be selected dependent on geographic location, current cricketing landscape in the area, school numbers, and possible facilities for grounds and general potential for expansion. The main achievements were as follows:

230 junior and senior female players taking part in regular cricket training and playing. Increased exposure of the Girls and Women’s game to a wider audience which has resulted in new participants being introduced to the game.

Introduction of Girls-only Kwik Cricket Festivals to grow competition outlets for the game and increase socialisation.

‘Super 8's’ – a bespoke format of the game with its own competition in order to bridge the gap between softball Kwik Cricket and hardball cricket.

10 new schools taking up the game for the first time which has resulted in over 4500 young people getting involved in cricket.

Working with a variety of partners to ensure sustainability and success at all levels involving schools, clubs, and regions.

Empowering people in local communities to make decisions and take ownership of regional development.

Regionally the idea of a women’s development group was established in 2013. Individuals from member countries are to be brought together to help improve the development of the women’s game across the region. In 2014 this will lead to an ambassador programme where role models will go into members to help develop women’s cricket development strategies within country. The Women’s Participation Fund was introduced in 2013, to help assist the development of women’s cricket in members 2014. The fund is there to support grassroots development, coaching, school delivery, league structures and recruitment retention and members have applied to use the funding in a number of different areas.

After several years of discussions with ICC Europe and developing a sound domestic base, Cricket

Romania became ICC Europe’s 32nd Associate & Affiliate (AM) member.

Sponsorship continued to support cricket development within some of the members.

RSA-Cricket Ireland

ABN.AMRO- KNCB

Moneygram – Cricket Italia

Parkmead Group- Cricket Scotland

Some member countries have taken the initiative and started to analysis their own organisations

governance structure. In 2013, Guernsey Cricket Board (GCB) conducted an in-depth governance

review to analyse their off-field activities and improve the organisations structure:

Ensured that every member of the board knew the direction Guernsey Cricket was heading,

setting out clear strategic goals that were filtered down throughout the organisation.

Taking time to examine how they conduct operations, improving the areas that needed

assistance they have given themselves the best opportunity for success on the pitch.

Watch interview with Guernsey’s Mark Latter here

As part of the Pepsi ICC’s Development Programme Strategic Operations to focus on the value of

good governance, ICC Europe has helped develop a Governance Toolkit with the assistance of the

Sport and Recreation Alliance. This will be available to members from 2014 onwards.

The ICC European Conference 2013 took place in Bologna, Italy. It was centred on sharing good

practice amongst the members and learning from each other. The sessions involved lots of group

interaction and focused on key topics of getting more European players, transition and playing.

There was a market place session, which each member had the chance to present cricket in its

country and a relaxed approach to networking.

83% rated the conference good or excellent

95% of Members thought the market place was a good session

The next ICC European Conference will take place in Q1 of 2015.