Emirates Cricket Board wins three ICC Development Awards

The Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) enjoyed a landmark year in 2025, earning three prestigious honours at the ICC Development Awards presented during the ICC Annual Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, last weekend.

The ECB was named ICC Development Initiative of the Year for its pioneering Girls U15 Academy League. The first initiative of its kind in the region, the league has gone beyond developing cricketing talent by promoting inclusion and creating meaningful opportunities for young girls who previously had limited access to organised competitive sport.

For the second consecutive year, the ICC Female Cricket Initiative of the Year award was shared by two countries, with the Emirates Cricket Board and Turkiye Cricket receiving the recognition. In the UAE, the successful hosting of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 helped spark a nationwide push to expand girls’ participation in cricket through the Interschool Criiio Gulf Cup and the ECB’s Get into Cricket – Girls Only programme. These initiatives introduced the sport to schools and communities across the Emirates, reaching areas where opportunities for girls to play cricket had previously been limited or non-existent.

The ECB also claimed the ICC Associate Member Women’s Team Performance of the Year award following the UAE women’s team’s historic performances against Zimbabwe. Competing in their first-ever ODI series after securing One-Day International status, the UAE held Zimbabwe to a 2-2 draw in the four-match series before clinching the subsequent T20I series 2-0. The triumph marked the UAE’s maiden bilateral series victory over a higher-ranked Full Member nation on foreign soil, underlining the rapid progress of women’s cricket in the country.

ECB Board Member Zayed Abbas: “These awards are a massive encouragement for the Emirates Cricket Board management, officials, players and support staff. We want to thank the International Cricket Council for creating this opportunity and recognition for Associate Members who overcome big challenges to deliver such initiatives. The success of our initiatives has renewed our commitment, passion and vigour and we are more determined than ever to produce a series of similar initiatives in the years ahead.

“The recognition that our women’s team has rightly earned has warmed our hearts and given us incredible motivation for the sustained growth and development of women’s cricket in the country. Our players have shown to the world their skills, abilities and determination to not only compete but to beat the ICC Full Members, which makes us immensely happy and proud.

“Women’s cricket continues to get recognition across the UAE. The media interest in the team and the players is more than ever and slowly but steadily the players are becoming popular in the cricket communities in the country. The schools and academy programmes around the country have already had a big impact and thousands of girls are now playing cricket, which means that we have a solid foundation to work on for the years ahead. A lot of these girls will eventually represent UAE junior and senior teams, and we are committed to providing them every opportunity and support that they require from us.

“We have already set our sights at maximising this success by investing more in development programmes while our aim remains to provide our national team continued exposure against top international teams. Our participation in the ACC Women’s Asia Cup 2026 will be massive opportunity for the players, and we have also set our eyes on the ICC Women’s T20 and ODI World Cup qualification. We have immense trust in our players as they have time and again proven their worth, through their hard work and sustained efforts, they can produce some incredible results in the years ahead and they will find us backing them to the absolute hilt,” he added.

ICC Development Initiative of The Year

ICC Female Cricket Initiative of the Year 2025

ICC Associate Member Women’s Team Performance of the Year 2025