Winners From All Corners Of Europe In Regional Awards

Winners From All Corners Of Europe In Regional Awards

The image which won Photo Of The Year as Clontarf's David Delany celebrates the third of his five successive wickets in the Under 13 All Ireland final

©Deryck Vincent

ICC Europe has announced the European regional winners of the Pepsi ICC Development Programme Awards for 2011 with many countries and individuals across Europe being recognised.

The award for Best Overall Cricket Development Programme in 2011 was won by Cricket Ireland.  This follows an exceptional year of success for Ireland on the cricket field, including a historical win against England in the ICC Cricket World Cup in India.

Not since The Netherlands’ shock win against hosts England at the ICC World Twenty20 2009 has European Cricket been awarded so much media attention, and for this Ireland must be congratulated. Ireland’s continuing excellence in promoting and developing cricket participation, education, and public awareness of cricket from grass roots level through to elite performance was also recognised by the European judging panel making them worthy winners of this category in 2011.

Cricket Scotland has had a successful year collecting two awards, one in the Best Women’s Cricket Initiative category for the formation and management of the Women’s National League as well as general excellence in the development of all aspects of women and girls cricket to increase participation numbers in Scotland.

The other was for Best Junior Participation Initiative in which Cricket Scotland introduced the National Primary Schools Competition (NPSC) open to all primary schools in Scotland to increase the number of young people exposed to cricket and to encourage team participation.

The prestigious Lifetime Service Award was awarded to Alex de la Mar of Netherlands after 25 years of dedicated service to the KNCB in administration. Formerly a first class player for Rood en Wit (Haarlem) between 1974 and 1999, de la Mar also represented Holland ten times in 1981 and 1982.

For the second year in a row, the Volunteer of the Year award goes to an individual from France, where Michael Selig, even though still studying for his PhD, has tirelessly involved himself in many activities in French cricket including youth cricket organisation, umpiring, and coaching whilst also serving as a member of the French Board. 

The Spirit of Cricket Award was awarded to Israel for their Cricket4Peace project which involved 80 boys and girls from four separate playing centers in Israel and the Palestinian Authority being introduced to cricket for the first time using cricket as a tool to bring communities together. 

This year’s winner of the Best Promotion and Marketing Programme was the Danish Cricket Association for their Spil Cricket project. The project promotes the game of cricket in the Danish school system using newly developed teaching materials that enables teachers to introduce cricket at their school free of charge from the Spil Cricket website.

The Photo of the Year was taken by Deryck Vincent of Ireland. The winning photo captures Clontarf's David Delany celebrating the third of his five successive clean bowled wickets in the Under 13 All Ireland Final.

ICC Regional Development Manager, Nick Pink commented: “The award winners reflect the great work that is happening across Europe in the ICC Pepsi Development Programme, with many different country winners and many others submitting some very good nominations. Each year the competition gets stronger and the winners deserve great credit and recognition for being selected and should be very proud of their achievements.”

The 2011 winners:

Best Overall Cricket Development Programme- Cricket Ireland
Best Women’s Cricket Initiative – Cricket Scotland
Best Junior Participation Initiative – Cricket Scotland
Best Cricket Promotion and Marketing Programme – Danish Cricket Association, Spil Cricket Project
Best Spirit of Cricket Initiative – Israel Cricket Association, Cricket4Peace Project
Photo of the Year –  Deryck Vincent (Ireland)
Volunteer of the Year – Michael Selig, (France)
Lifetime Service Award – Alex de la Mar (Netherlands)