Brazil creates history; becomes first associate to fully contract Women’s team before Men’s

In a glass breaking move, Cricket Brasil, the governing body of cricket in the biggest South American country provided its female cricket team with central contracts. The move became historic in a way that a team that has had very little exposure at the world level in cricket, was awarded central contracts even before its male counterparts were and that too at a time when the country is going through one of the worst economical phases, courtesy Pandemic. 

Cricket Brazil awarded 14 professional central contracts to the women’s national team. This move would also go on to raise the status of the game in Brazil and benefit 2000 girls who aspire to play the game at the highest level. 

The International Cricket Council (ICC) awarded Cricket Brasil with the ‘100% Female Cricket Initiative of the Year’ award. The ICC on the occasion of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace on April 6,  announced various awards to recognise the positive role that sport plays in people’s lives.

The awards recognise the efforts of the Associate Members in the categories of ‘Development Initiative of the Year’, ‘100% Cricket Female Cricket Initiative of the Year’, ‘Digital Fan Engagement of the Year’ and ‘Cricket 4 Good Social Impact Initiative of the Year’, with one winner from each of the five regions Africa, Americas, Asia, East-Asia Pacific, Europe in each category.

While Brazil won the award from the Americas region, Denmark (Europe), Samoa (East-Asia Pacific), Nigeria (Africa) and Malaysia (Asia) were the other winners in this category.

While Cricket Brasil’s efforts are glass breaking no doubt, what other associations did was equally important and empowering for women in their societies. In Malaysia, players were ambassadors for #GirlsForGoals and #Cricket4WomensAid, helping in fundraising for survivors of domestic abuse. 

Samoa International Cricket Association started a ‘Healthy Nanas’ programme in association with the Australian Government to offer women and girls a platform to participate in sport and at the same time ensure a healthy lifestyle. They could talk to fellow women about an issue that impacts them while being on the field. 

The Danish Cricket Federation wanted to raise the number of girls taking up the sport and thus introduced a campaign to invite many girls and women to join the game by speaking to them in their own language. To do that they contacted young female micro-influencers on Instagram. It worked in their favour as it helped revitalize the ecosystem, with 50 women attending the first kick-off cricket session.

While in most nations, it was the cricket board taking up the initiative, in Nigeria, Ijeoma Okigbo, a female journalist cum cricketer started the Girls Aspire initiative. Through this, she utilised all her lessons learnt at the ‘introduction to cricket’ course to a school in Gauraka, Niger State, to coach junior girls from underprivileged backgrounds and stop them from being forced to march on the roads. The 50 girls, who have gained confidence and respect, have become part of a cricket community.