Israel win global award in Spirit of Cricket category

The International Cricket Council today announced the global award winners of the Pepsi ICC Development Programme Annual Awards 2009, with the Israel Cricket Association awarded the prize in the Spirit of Cricket category for their Cross Border Cricket project.

The Cross Border Cricket project, the brainchild of ICA youth coach George Sheader, has been running for over 12 months, introducing young players in Bedouin towns in the Negev desert of the game, and then focusing on facilitating interaction between the Arabic-speaking Bedouin children and Hebrew-speaking Jewish children from other areas across Israel in which cricket cricket is coached.

ICA Chairman Stanley Perlman was naturally ecstatic upon hearing the news from the ICC today. "The ICA will continue to strive to use cricket to break down barriers and improve the lot of others. We are doing it in the Bedouin community and plan to expand the project to additional areas as well. We are proud that our efforts have received global recognition, and people around the world can know it is possible to challenge prejudice and social injustice, particularly here in Israel and specifically through the game of cricket".

"The ICA wishes to extend their congratulations to all those who have made this success possible, and in particular George Sheader who has done a magnificent job in developing cricket in the Negev for so many years, our partners in the Hura sports department and Cricket4Change in the UK who have offered assistance in many different ways", added Perlman.

ICC Regional Development Manager - Europe, Richard Holdsworth congratulated all winners, in particular those from Europe who won four of the eight awards on offer: "This a fantastic achievement for the Europe region, to win a record four awards at the Global awards proves how much excellent development work all the countries are doing and how far we have come".

This year's judging panel featured current ICC President David Morgan, alongside former ICC presidents Ehsan Mani, Malcolm Gray and Ray Mali. Keith Bradshaw, the Secretary and Chief Executive of Marylebone Cricket Club, completed the line-up.

This marks the second time the ICA has won an ICC Global Award, having won the Spirit of Cricket as well in the inaugural year of the awards in 2002. The ICA has recently been held negotiations with the Peres Center for Peace to include children from Palestinian towns in the Hebron and Jerusalem areas, as well as including additional Israeli towns such as Yeruham and Jaffa, in the project, as of the new school year. In the meanwhile projects with the Bedouin community continue on an almost daily basis. Teams from Ra'anana and Modi'in recently visited Hura for a series of matches with reciprocal visits planned, a youth Negev league got underway over the recent Purim holiday involving teams from Hura, and two teams from Hura, partially sponsored by the ICA, will be joining two teams from Be'er Sheva in Eilat for the Ayelet Games later this month.

The nomination submitted by the ICA can be viewed here.