130,000 kids, World Cups & Birmingham 2022: Malaysia announces US$1.12m sponsorship

The Malaysian Cricket Association is set to receive MYR 4.6 million (~US$1.12 million) over three years under the Yayasan Sime Darby sponsorship programme.

The news of the sponsorship follows on the heels of the hotly competed election for the three Associate Directors on the ICC Board which saw the MCA’s President Mahinda Vallipuram re-elected for a third two-year term.

The YSD sponsorship programme is targeted towards the growth of grassroots cricket, specifically within the MCA’s ‘Cricket Adiwira Programme’ and the Association’s Women’s Development Programme.

‘YSD is thrilled to collaborate with Malaysian Cricket to introduce the game in its simplest form to more than 130,000 school children and by providing capacity-building to over 1,000 teachers. Apart from developing interest in the game at the grassroots, the programme also helps identify and recruit budding girl talents into the various age categories under the National Cricket Development Programme. Ultimately, we aim to produce 15 professional women players to qualify for the T20 Cricket World Cup in 2023,’ said Yayasan Sime Darby Chairman Y.A.M Tunku Tan Sri Imran Ibni Almarhum Tuanku Ja’afar said.

Yayasan Sime Darby or Sime Darby Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Sime Darby Berhad, Sime Darby Plantation Berhad and Sime Darby Property Berhad.

With an initial goal to roll out the 128-player-per-school programme to 458 schools in three years, the MCA has an ambitious target of 1,500 schools in which to launch Adiwira Cricket, which ‘enables all children regardless of their socio-economic background to play cricket’.

The ‘Girl’s Development and High-Performance Pathway Programme’, will see Malaysian Cricket target the Women’s U19 team and the Senior Women’s team to build towards a dream of World Cups and qualification for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

‘On Behalf of MCA, I place on record our sincere gratitude and appreciation to Yayasan Sime Darby for having confidence in MCA’s pathway programmes and thereby concluding the Sponsorship Agreement to support Malaysian Cricket Association’s development of the Entry Level Cricket Adiwira Programme and the women’s development programme, targeting the U12, U15, U17 as well as the U19 High Performance Women’s Team,’ Malaysian Cricket Association President Mahinda Vallipuram said.

The ICC Chief Executive, Manu Sawhney provided his congratulations to the MCA:

‘We welcome this partnership that will fuel the growth of cricket, both in terms of early participation and the Women’s game in Malaysia. We hope that this also inspires many others to join us in growing the sport even further across the world.

Read more about the announcement on the MCA website here.

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