Despite Brazil having a history of Cricket spinning back to the 1880s, the game hasn’t been persistent enough to make that of an impact.
In 2018, ICC recognized Brazil women’s cricket team as one of the international cricket playing nation and since then the team has had a good run, they have been undefeated in all 10 T20I’s they have taken part in across the South American Championship in 2018 and Central American Championships in 2019. Thanks to a rule which ensures every international T20 match has full ICC status, 10 straight victories have taken Brazil to 36th in the women’s rankings, 40 places above their male counterparts.
The board has now decided to give fourteen central contracts to Brazil’s national women’s players in 2020, enabling them with major facilities while training and playing cricket as a full-time profession. This will include grooming of 14 players, training them 5 times a week under the guidance of national team coach in preparation for the next phase of ICC Qualifying events and other regional championships.
Brazil Cricket Association’s award-winning projects include empowering youth through cricket, where young players were given black shirts as they progress to become leaders of the programs themselves; which now boast almost 3,700 junior participants with plans to hit 5,000 during 2020.
Matt Featherstone speaks about the development programs in Brazil. As soon as people started taking the game seriously, the sponsorships came in and that resulted in a bigger growth and supported the center’s new strategy for development. The sponsors like Biotreat and Guarita gave in their names.
The Brazil Women have won four of the past five South American Championships, a fact that the Association lauds as not being “possible before Brazil invested heavily on larger participation and a greater structure in Cricket on upskilling coaches, improving pathways and increasing National leagues on all levels”.
“We know that the Brazilian Ladies have the ability to play at a higher level, we are just going to provide them with the opportunity. I really think the Ladies have the potential to put Brazil on the map globally. This is very exciting times for Cricket Brazil,” said Matt Featherstone, President of Cricket Brazil.
The centrally contracted players will also become a part of Brazil’s ongoing development projects which will enhance their overall performance. This move is historic and female-empowering which will inspire other nations to pursue cricket as well.
Source: emergingcricket.com
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