According to latest statement,Malaysian Cricket is honoured to announce its collaboration with Yayasan Sime Darby (YSD), as a recipient of MYR 4.6 million (app USD$1.12 million) under the YSD sponsorship programme for the development of cricket at the grassroots.
The sponsorship is aimed at developing the Cricket Adiwira Programme and the Women’s Development Programme. As the beneficiary of YSD’s sponsorship, Malaysian Cricket edges closer towards its vision – “To be a major sport in Malaysia”.
Through the scope of YSD’s sponsorship, Malaysian Cricket has set a road map that enables all children regardless of their socio economic background to play cricket under the Cricket Adiwira Programme, thus, creating a generation of children who believe and uphold unity in diversity whilst acquiring a sense of pride as Malaysian sports-persons.
Cricket Adiwira is an entry level programme in schools which can be played either indoors, or outdoors at any time. Under the programme, each primary school encompasses a pool of 128 students playing cricket. There will be 4 programmes per year, per school, where 32 players will play in each programme, with an aim to achieve 458 schools in 3 years.
Notwithstanding this, Malaysian Cricket targets to lock in a total of 1,500 schools under Adiwira Cricket. Over the past twelve (12) months, Malaysian Cricket has successfully trained more than 1,100 teachers to conduct the Cricket Adiwira programme. This programme will be managed by one development manager and ten (10) development officers throughout Malaysia.
In the Girl’s Development and High-Performance Pathway Programme, Malaysian Cricket targets the Women’s U19 team and the Senior Women’s team to showcase their talent in the international arena. YSD’s support would allow the U19 Women’s team to have centralised training, play in quality competitions and give them the exposure needed to qualify for the Cricket World Cup. Through this pathway, it will improve the women’s International Cricket Council (ICC) World Ranking and this will lead the women’s team to qualify for the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup.
In addition, the support will provide the team with a chance to qualify for the 2022
Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK. For the National U19 Women’s Programme, Malaysian Cricket will undertake the selection process for the National camp through the U12, U15 and U17 National School Championship tournaments. Selected players will then be called for a national camp. The U19 Women’s programme will be under the purview of the National Women’s Head Coach.
In this three-year target, Malaysian Cricket has faith and believe that women cricketers in this programme, will shine at the International stage and inadvertently empower women through the sport of cricket. As Rahul Dravid said “No dream is ever chased alone” hence, through this concerted effort, cricket in Malaysia will inevitably be a sport to be reckoned with.
From the Malaysian Cricket Association (MCA) President Mr. Mahinda Vallipuram “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.
We have worked tirelessly over the years to establish structures which would give us the ability to deliver on our aspirations and targets. We are of the opinion that participation at an early age is key to long term sustainability that will allow Malaysia to be one of the top playing countries in the near future.
There are no shortcuts to development and it requires a medium to long term process to enable growth and performance. It is a journey that will continue to evolve positively. I trust that other corporate organisations will come forward to forge partnerships based on our vision, initiatives, structure and the ability to deliver on our plans.”
“I am glad that Malaysia as an associate member country have been able to contribute to one of the key priorities of ICC in the year of 100% cricket and in women’s year of cricket.’
Yayasan Sime Darby Chairman Y.A.M Tunku Tan Sri Imran Ibni Almarhum Tuanku Ja’afar said: “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 capacitybuilding 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 2022. “We are supporting all the age categories within the cricket development programme as we believe that funding initiatives for female talent development in sports are few and far between. We also believe that female athletes have the potential to excel and make our country proud just as well if not better than their
male counterparts,” he added.
Manu Sawhney, Chief Executive, International Cricket Council said, “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”
