On November 22nd, the International Cricket Council (ICC) presented its growth strategy, which prioritises women's cricket. The plan which has been developed in collaboration with the members of the ICC, aims to strengthen and expand the game of cricket globally, with the goal of making it more accessible to more countries, players, and fans.
The game's global governing body revealed how they plan to strengthen, grow, and defend the game digitally.
In a statement released by the organisation, they said, "In order to strengthen the sport, ICC has promised to deliver more cricket for all members and also invest in women's cricket. Through ICC.tv, ICC plans to provide fans from across the globe with a platform to watch the game they love and also spoke about the development of a new mobile game.
It further added, "To promote growth, ICC will also push for cricket's inclusion in the Olympics so as to make the game available to a wider audience. The ICC will aim to focus on entry-level programme while also prioritising female participation."
With its continuous commitment to maintaining cricket free of corruption, the ICC is keen to preserve the game. The ICC Cricket 4 Good global community outreach programme will aim to impact the lives of children and families around the world, according to the organisation.
Greg Barclay, the independent ICC Chair, and Geoff Allardice, the newly-appointed full-time CEO, discussed how the ICC will assist women's cricket in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Given that one of the six aims and strategic priority initiatives is to expand women's cricket, Barclay discussed the importance of women's tournaments and what the immediate future holds.
"I think it is really important that we ensure that women's events have an equal standing and same amount of recognition as the men's events," said Barclay. "We are desperate to ensure that we get the women's event in New Zealand in the timeframe. It's been postponed once for 12 months.
"There's no doubt that with COVID we had challenges around the scheduling and hosting of all events and women's cricket is no different. There have been plenty of women's events and the future of the women's game is really exciting. We are going to ensure that we continue to maintain and support the obvious growth potential that it has got.
"Getting an event away in a few months' time is going to be pivotal in enabling us to do that. From what I have seen and I have got the advantage of being down in New Zealand, it should be a great tournament."
"The last 12 months have been a bit uneven in terms of how much cricket the national women's teams are playing, but we have just started in Zimbabwe with the qualifiers for the World Cup and it's a really important tournament not only for who gets to play in the World Cup but also who gets to play in the next edition of the ICC Women's Championship," said Allardice.
"We are looking forward to a big 12 months. We have got the Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand and then the Commonwealth Games in July and August in Birmingham. In early 2023' we have got a Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa."
The host nations for every major men's limited-overs event between 2024 and 2031 were also recently confirmed by the ICC. The T20 World Cup will now be held every two years, with the Champions Trophy filling the gap in between.