Bhutan Cricket Council Board has been named the Asian winner in the Cricket for Social Good Initiative category awarded by the International Cricket Council recently. Cricket for Social Good Initiative of the Year award acknowledges the outstanding projects where cricket is used as a tool for social change or development.
With all sporting events coming to an abrupt halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, unlike others, Bhutan Cricket used its entire human resource to serve the people by encouraging them to sign up for the Desuung Integrated Training Programme.
“Our president insisted on encouraging all coaches, players, office staff, and everyone under Bhutan Cricket to undergo the Desuung integrated training programme after the worsening situation of COVID-19 in the country. Anytime, if there is a lockdown, we might need frontline workers. So that is how we started,” said Damber Gurung, the CEO of Bhutan Cricket.
Today, about 90 per cent of the staff, coaches, and players with the organisation is a Desuup and are serving the nation in its fight against the virus.
“Our coaches and office staff are all frontline workers today. Some are looking after the red building, some monitored shops, some participated in patrolling day and night. Some of them have been deployed in the southern areas to guard the border areas. And some are helping in various quarantine facilities,” the CEO added.
The initiative was well received by the International Cricket Council as Bhutan won the Cricket for Social Good Initiative of the Year award from the Asian region. However, Bhutan could not win the award globally as it fell short of few points. Uganda Cricket Association was declared as the global winner.
So far, since the introduction of cricket in early 2000, Bhutan Cricket has won three ICC awards for outstanding development works in cricket including the global winner for the cricket for change initiative of the year award in 2018.
Every year, the ICC announces regional and global winners for its Development awards, celebrating the work of its 92 associate members in growing the game of cricket around the world.
Passang Dorji
