Cricket Namibia Wins Two ICC Africa Awards

CRICKET Namibia recently achieved another milestone when it won two more awards at the ICC Development Awards.

After winning the Associate Member men's performance of the year for 2019, Namibia won two more prizes at the 2020 awards - the Africa regional winners in both the ICC Development Initiative of the Year and the ICC Digital Fan Engagement of the Year categories.

"These awards acknowledge the outstanding development initiatives delivered either through a physical participation programme or a digitally delivered game development initiative during the year, and the outstanding innovative use of digital platforms, campaigns or technology to drive engagement with fans and the wider community," Cricket Namibia said in a press release.

Utilising the lockdown to embark upon an intensive capacity building programme demonstrates an exceptional use of the time from playing cricket; the chairman of the ICC Associate Members Imran Kwata said.

Ït is undeniable that Cricket Namibia would have ensured more of its players and staff to be better prepared for life outside the boundary rope and the significant increase in the number of coaches attained during this period further underlines the great work done," he added.

Kwata added that the promotional activities Cricket Namibia carried out on the back of the ICC Development Award in 2019 was the perfect case study of how a global award can be used to drive national engagement.

Cricket Namibia CEO Johan Muller said they were proud to win the ICC awards.

"We are proud to receive this recognition for both ICC Award categories. To be declared regional winners for Africa and shortlisted from 92 Associate member countries is indeed a great achievement," he said.

"As an administrative team we are dedicated to serving our stakeholders to the best of our abilities and for us to achieve this, we continuously increase our capacity and skills. The increase in capacity and knowledge of our staff, players, umpires, scorers and coaches was a priority and the lockdown period in 2020 allowed us to focus on these elements. The continuous development of our players through a life skills program is also ground-breaking in the Namibian sports environment," he added.

Muller said he was proud of CN's staff and players for their commitment during this period.

"We have wonderful initiatives planned for 2021 which will hopefully make us international winners at the next awards," he said.

"We are humbled to have received these awards and it is a greater honour to be placed in such distinguished ranks as those of the past honourees," he added.

This article originally appeared on Namibian

Photo: Helge Schütz