On the eve of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019, the ‘criiio’ campaign has been launched by the ICC. Fans have been encouraged to share ‘their criio’ across social media in an effort to celebrate how the game can be played ‘anywhere, by anyone, at anytime’.
What began life as ‘Project Wildfire’ has involved hundreds of representatives across all five ICC regions to celebrate and drive the rapid growth of cricket wherever and however it is played.
Driving the project within the ICC Development team is Andy Hobbs, Senior Manager – Development, and Australian David Szumowski who relocated to Dubai into the newly created position of Participation Pathways Manager last April.
“Ultimately it’s about changing the narrative of a game that’s ‘inaccessible’ or ‘expensive’ to reflect the truth; that cricket can be played anywhere by anyone at any time. It is already happening around the world and was reflected in the amazing photos and videos we saw during #WorldWideWickets. This is what we want to celebrate and help grow through criiio”, Hobbs told us today.
This campaign, which has grown out of the #WorldWideWickets user-generated social media initiative, is the first of a series of programs that will be launched by the ICC over the next 12 months to connect and grow the hundreds of millions of cricketers around the world.
During the Men’s T20 World Cup East Asia Pacific Qualifier in the Philippines in late 2018, the region’s ICC Finance & Operations Officer Rob Gomm spoke to Emerging Cricket about the global body’s development programs. He also gave a brief insight into the new project which launched today.
ICC Chief Executive. Manu Sawhney said: “On the eve of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup which brings together the best ten teams and players in the world, we want to celebrate the nearly half a billion fans playing social cricket around the world.
“Criiio is a celebration of everyone playing cricket their way and world cricket wants to invite them into the criiio tribe. Cricket is for everyone, it is inexpensive, engaging, simple and fun, and we want to share all the different ways that the game is being played.”
