Women’s T20 WC 2020: ICC & UNICEF Extend Partnership For Women Empowerment

UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund), a United Nations agency and the ICC (International Cricket Council) announced on December 19, 2019, that they will continue their partnership for the noble cause of empowering children and promoting their health and well-being. This time they will work together as part of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 which will take place from 21 February to 8 March 2020 in Australia. The focus of the partnership will be on empowering women and girls through cricket.

ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 will be a great platform for UNICEF to raise funds to bring positive change to women and girls and drive awareness for the work that UNICEF does as a global champion for children’s rights in cricket playing nations around the world.

ICC and UNICEF partnership began in 2015 when they came together for the program, ‘Cricket For Good’.
At a global level, Cricket For Good and UNICEF focussed on specific areas of Nutrition and Child Development, Water and Sanitation Hygiene, Quality Education, Empowering Adolescents, Child Protection and Child Health to improve children’s lives and transform the future.

The most recent partnership between ICC and UNICEF was during the 2019 ICC Men’s ODI World Cup in England in May-July 2019, where they run the ‘One Day 4 Children’ campaign throughout the tournament. The campaign was focused on raising funds to support UNICEF’s work for children in cricket playing nations across the world and geared towards helping children play and be healthy.

UNICEF had raised USD 180,000 from the campaign that would directly go to fund a 12-months girls’ cricket project in Afghanistan. During the period, there will be a cricket competition for school-aged girls in Afghanistan, training will be provided to 120 teachers and cricket equipment will be provided to the girls. They will also focus on reaching the community and working with the elders, making people understand the positive impact cricket playing girls can have in society.

Monies raised during the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 will go to similar projects in cricket playing nations, including an innovative program to promote girls’ participation in cricket in Sri Lanka and build peace in communities.

ICC CEO Manu Sawhney expressed his feelings saying: “We are delighted to extend our partnership with UNICEF to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. I want us to harness the extraordinary reach of our sport to empower women and girls around the world through cricket and using ICC events as a fundraising platform enables us to do that.

“Sport for development and in particular cricket can be a powerful tool to transform lives and the projects in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are designed to have a long-term positive impact with teachers being trained to deliver cricket to girls for years to come.”

UNICEF Australia Chair Ann Sherry AO shared what role cricket can play: “Cricket has tremendous power to make a difference in the lives of children, especially girls, by building leadership skills, empowering them to achieve their goals and building bridges within communities – so that we can ultimately build a better world together.”
“We are excited to partner with the ICC on the Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 and enormously proud that Australia is hosting this important event for women.”

Fans will be able to donate for the cause when buying tickets and during the various events and activities that will take place in the stadia throughout the tournament. Also, fans can participate in the cause through online options which will be available during the event.

Tickets to all ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 matches, including the semi-finals and final, are available now at t20worldcup.com. Children’s tickets have been kept at just $5 and adults tickets start from $20. Fans buying tickets have the option of making a donation to UNICEF at the point of purchase.

The Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 will begin on 21 February 2020. The first match will be between hosts, defending champions Australia and 2018 T20 World Cup semi-finalists India. Interestingly, the tournament final will take place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 8 March 2020, which is also International Women’s Day.