Targeting sustainable growth for a global game

When the ICC set up its Development Program in 1997, one of the main aims was to spread the game across the world. This has been achieved with membership doubling to 104 Members and Bulgaria, Estonia and Turkey being the latest to join the ICC family at this year’s Annual Conference.

But while cricket has spread across the globe from as far afield as Afghanistan to Peru, we were also determined to ensure that it wasn’t simply a case of ensuring our mailbag from Members was full of more and more colourful stamps. Our focus is on setting up sustainable cricket programmes. In short, from 2001-05 to 2006-10, there has been a strategic shift from ‘globalisation’ to ‘sustainable growth’.

Although the performances of teams at international level are an excellent indication of improved playing standards, the results of Ireland at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 and Nepal in recent ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup events being perfect examples, what we wanted to measure and achieve was that through our investment in Associate and Affiliate cricket, we were increasing participation amongst players, as well as increasing the number of coaches and umpires involved in the game.

The work of the five ICC Regions has helped our Members to collectively achieve this. The latest figures from the ICC Development Program research show a 17% increase in overall participation in the past year, an 11% increase in active umpires and a 31% increase in employee levels at our Member countries. The overall participation increase since 2002 sits at 135%.

So while much progress has been made in the past decade, one of the main issues that we hear from our Members is that they need more resources, particularly financial, to be able to develop the game within their own area.

In July, we were able to announce that over the next eight years we are going to invest almost US $300 million into the development of the game, thanks to the revenue generated from our commercial partnerships, which we believe to be the biggest investment in global development by any sport in the world outside football.

This increase in funding will mean that Affiliate Members will receive a guaranteed annual base administration grant for the first time with opportunities to gain a new capital and development grant, and Associate countries, particularly those Members who are High Performance countries, are set to benefit significantly.

With this new wealth, there comes new responsibility to build the game, and ensure that this money is well spent in ensuring long-term success for the sport. We will therefore be introducing important and improved compliance and reporting mechanisms to monitor and support the use of this enhanced funding. What will also be key is for Members to be able to use these extra ICC resources to secure greater non-ICC funding and support for the game in their respective homelands.

With unprecedented competition for the Associate and Affiliate Member places for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, along with the new phenomenon of regular ODI series and matches between the top six Associates and Full Members, as well as the ongoing success of the ICC Intercontinental Cup and ICC World Cricket League competitions, there has never been a more exciting time for the global growth of the game.