Ireland’s Women’s Cricket side secured its first-ever T20 International win over England in Clontarf on Sunday, adding to the momentum of an important conference on Saturday which championed the role of Women within the sport.
A dramatic final-over win on Sunday, with Christina Coulter Reilly hitting the winning runs off the penultimate ball of the match, lit up the crowd in Clontarf and is another significant step forward for the team.
24 hours earlier, Cricket Ireland brought together a host of supporters and opinion leaders to discuss the ‘On the Front Foot’ initiative, created in 2020, to advance the innovation, creativity, and leadership capabilities of future female sports leaders.
Supported by Sport Ireland and Sport Northern Ireland and hosted in the newly refurbished Celtic Suite at Croke Park, the session featured a range of panellists from cricket and beyond, including Orla Stevens, Managing Director of Certa; sports broadcaster Ryle Nugent, CEO of Premier Sports; Mohammed Mahomed, Co-Founder at Her Sport; and Kelli O’Keeffe, Managing Director of Teneo Sport and Sponsorships – among others.
Stevens spoke about the impact of their partnership with the Women’s team and how it neatly tied into the company value of irrepressible performance.
She said that in year one of the sponsorship, unprompted awareness of the relationship was six per cent, but this had doubled to 12 per cent in year two and was likely to rise further again, with Virgin Media showing live coverage of the action over the weekend, a first for the sport on free-to-air national TV.
The importance of this and the storytelling capabilities of the players was highlighted in the discussion on visibility.
The meeting started with an address from Cricket Ireland Chair Brian MacNeice and a discussion with four of those who had completed the ‘On the Front Foot’ programme and were now taking up positions of leadership within the sport.
This year’s programme is already full ahead of its start later this month.
It is a real-life example of how putting the right supports in place can bring about transformational change in the way sporting organisations see and conduct themselves in 2024 and beyond.
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