We want the upcoming Womens' WT20 to belong to the community, says ICC CEO David Richardson 

ICC hopes to further promote the beautiful and competitive women's game through the event.

ICC CEO David Richardson | Getty

International Cricket Council (ICC) CEO David Richardson has said that ICC Women’s World T20 2018 in the West Indies this November will be a perfect “celebration of cricket” and the game's governing body wants the competition to touch the hearts of Caribbean people and "belong to their community."

This year's Women's World T20 is the first ever standalone marquee event for the game's shortest format and the ICC wants it to be a huge step forward in the development and promotion of the women's game, in order to fulfill the long-term ambition of being a highly inclusive sport. 

“We want this event to belong to the community, as opposed to the ICC, We want to be more inclusive. Cricket is for everyone. Certainly, this event provides an opportunity for the communities to get involved and we’re going to make accessibility to the event and coming to the matches very easy and affordable to do.” said Richardson during his event preparation assessment trip. 

He added, “It’s going to be a party. It’s going to be a celebration of cricket in this part of the world. All matches are going to be broadcast, and the rest of the world is looking forward to it. It is a perfect opportunity for the Caribbean cricket community to showcase themselves and hopefully the players will come to the party and perform as well.”

The ICC did a survey, according to which 39% of all the game's lovers are females and this is the base they want to constantly increase. Especially with last year's ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2017 being such a huge hit all over the globe. 

Richardson talked about this goal and added, “Cricket is uniquely placed to be a sport that can be played by women, followed by women, Certainly, within 5-10 years, we want cricket to be the No.1 sport for women. There’s a groundswell of support for the women’s sport across the world, particularly in places like Australia, England and India, [where] cricket is taking off. The momentum was created by the [WWC 17] final at Lord’s, a full house. No one thought that would happen, but it did."

"This is just another step towards the incredible growth we’ve seen in women’s cricket. This is a stepping stone towards the WT20 2020 in Australia where we’re going to be in a 100,000 seater stadium and hopefully, have that as a full house for the final. So, hopefully, we’ll get a full house here in Antigua for this final as well.” he concluded. 

The WWT20 is set to kickstart on November 9, with Guyana, St Lucia, and Antigua and Barbuda hosting the event. 

(Inputs from ICC)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 27 Aug, 2018

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