Eight Flights in 18 Days

After only three full days back in Australia after the ICC conference in Dubai I’m again fighting my way through airports to Tokyo, the capital of Japan.

Dubai was a great personal and professional experience, the United Arab Emirates is an incredible place and the culture is some what interesting. Though Dubai is extremely hot this time of the year it was so interesting to experience extreme heat in such a dry hot humid country away from the cold and wet weather in Melbourne.

I’m writing this entry on my Qantas flight to Tokyo, one of many flights over the coming two and a bit weeks. The main purpose of this trip is to explain to our member countries the new funding that has been available to cricket globally through the selling of the main ICC sanctioned events to ESPN broadcasting.

The global development program has around $300 million US over the next 4 years, which makes cricket the second biggest developing sport globally behind FIFA (Soccer). With this come extra responsibilities for member countries and an opportunity for ICC staff to educate the developing countries on how best to use the forecasted money and reporting procedures.

During the trip I will also be visiting South Korea, Bali and Jakarta before returning to Sydney then onto Melbourne on August 12th.

East Asia – Pacific has been well supported over the last few years by our full member countries (Australia and New Zealand) which include the states and provinces. Due to this relationship majority of the Australian states and New Zealand Provinces have a partnership with one of our ten Member countries.

The partnerships are funded by the ICC and gives state/provinces staff the opportunity to experience developing country cricket nations and provide assistance in coach education, high performance programs and competition management.

During this trip I have a travelling partner in Daniel Trevillian from Cricket Victoria who will assist in presenting some coach education courses and high performance program with the Japan National Women’s team. It certainly beats travelling by yourself and to have another voice is always good for the coaches and players.

In Indonesia I will be joined by a former WACA employee and good mate Simon Barras as we spend a week in Jakarta and Bali conducting coach education courses.

The ICC Champions Trophy has been an interesting topic for many people in and out of cricket with the safety concerns on Pakistan where the tournament is due to be held in September.

I know the ICC head office has been working very hard with all countries to establish an outcome on wether the event will go ahead in Pakistan or not. A media release yesterday announced that Pakistan will still host the Champions Trophy. Those unaware of the Champions Trophy, it is a one day tournament involving only full member countries, a bit like a mini world cup.

I’m looking forward to the next few weeks even though I don’t have a day off during this time. It is a great opportunity to assist these hard working member countries.

Stay tuned with some pictures and entries to come over the next few weeks.

CB