DADS PLAYING THEIR PART IN WOMEN’S WORLD CUP SUCCESS
IT’S the simple things that count. Nothing fills me with more joy than playing catch with my two girls, Jemima, who’s 8, and Allegra, 4. We often substitute the ball for a full water balloon. The prospect of the balloon bursting and drenching my girls mid-catch has upped the fun of this simple activity.
It’s made for precious time away from screens and the pressures of daily life. It always puts a smile on our faces and results in a bit of healthy, if not soggy, competition!
My motivation is not the hope of one day turning my girls into elite sportspeople. Instead it provides a chance to bond, create memories and connect. I think sport gives families the opportunity to enjoy quality time together, be it playing or watching.
In 2016, the idea of hosting an international women’s cricket event at the MCG hadn’t even been conceived. In nine days, it will become a reality.
The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 will be the third major international sporting event I have had the great privilege to work on. Both the London 2012 Olympic Games and the 2015 Cricket World Cup were fantastic events, hailed as successful by most measures. Each had high expectations in terms of crowds and TV audiences.
This ICC Women’s T20 World Cup feels different. When we started the planning, there were so many unanswered questions. What would the expectations be? What will the crowds be? How many people will tune in from around the world? One thing we did know was we were living through a period of unprecedented change and that opportunity was only growing bigger and bigger. I recall a meeting former Australian captain Belinda Clark and I attended with the Australian women’s team in September 2016. We were debating which venues to play at. When the idea of the women’s final at the MCG was raised, the reaction was “Can we do it?”
Words like “bold” and even “audacious” were thrown around. Yet now, when we think of the prodigious sporting talent and professionalism of the world’s best players, it is of course only right that they should play on the game’s biggest stage.
While there is a long way to go, we are on a trajectory. If we are serious about equality, we must do all that we can to accelerate that change. And like me, for many in the project, this has personal significance. Most members of the local organising committee board have at least one daughter. I have two. Kevin Roberts, Cricket Australia CEO has five, and former Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland’s daughter Annabel is playing in the World Cup. The broad support we’ve had from the cricket family, venues, host cities, partners and leaders across the community has been incredible.
What’s been particularly great to see is fathers heading to the matches with their whole families. The T20 World Cup is a true family occasion and already proving to be a groundbreaking tournament.
In the opening four days, new crowd, broadcast and digital coverage benchmarks were broken across the first six matches.
The opening match between Australia and India at Sydney’s Showground Stadium attracted a crowd of 13,432, the highest attendance for a stand-alone women’s international cricket match in Australia. The culmination of this tournament, the final on International Women’s Day, will provide a significant platform to celebrate equality, inclusion and women’s empowerment.
I encourage all dads to bring their girls, and boys for that matter, down to the MCG on March 8. I can guarantee it will be an incredibly special moment for families to share together, whether they are fans of cricket, sport in general or, indeed, Katy Perry.
Hopefully it will be one of those life moments you might find your daughter recalling at her 21st in years to come. The time she shared a history-making moment with her dad.
Nick Hockley is CEO of ICC T20 World Cup 2020