Andrea Nelson was the chief executive of the organising committee for the 2022 Cricket World Cup. Photo / Photosport
Andrea Nelson was the chief executive of the organising committee for the 2022 Cricket World Cup. Photo / Photosport
Opinion
OPINION:
After a captivating month that saw sports fans engage with women's cricket like never before, the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2022 signed off with a record-breaking, sold-out final at Hagley Oval on Sunday.
Andrea Nelson, chief executive of the organising committee, delivers an over of the six key factors in successfully delivering a major global sporting event during a pandemic.
1. Resilience
Delivering major events is hard enough in the best of times. So, throw in a pandemic that has disrupted just about every area of our lives and there are going to be some challenges. To deal with them – and keep dealing with them – requires a truly resilient team. We built a delivery team capable of rolling with the punches – and picking itself back up quickly whenever we did get knocked down.
The reality for just about everyone working through this pandemic is that very little happens as first planned. When conditions change, you need to be able to adapt to those changes and then seize whatever opportunities arise. I have a top drawer full of plans we never rolled out. We focused on making sure no stone was left unturned in our efforts to deliver and promote the event – regardless of the massive impact of Covid on our best-laid plans.
3. Trust
Earning and retaining trust is crucial at every level. As a management team we were fortunate enough to have a hugely experienced and capable board, led by Liz Dawson. The board had faith in our ability to get the job done, and we had trust in each other. In turn, the key delivery staff had faith that the right decisions were being made. To succeed, we also needed to retain the faith of a large and varied stakeholder group that included the ICC, New Zealand Cricket, central and local government, the Major Cricket Associations, the host cities, venues, broadcasters, competing nations and fans. Having built strong relationships throughout this network, the support we received whenever things got tough was unwavering – and utterly crucial.
Australian players celebrate winning the final. Photo / Photosport
4. Teamwork
It takes a large, cohesive team to deliver a major event. By event time we had around 50 key staff, who worked alongside their ICC counterparts, a vast number of contractors and suppliers and an army of over 700 volunteers. Every single person involved – and there were hundreds – pushed in the same direction to make the event the best cricket tournament it could possibly be. That spoke volumes of the 'Kiwi' way of doing things. When push comes to shove, we all pull together.
It's easy to get dissuaded when things aren't tracking well. On this event we had to deal with a postponement, the cancellation of key promotional events, multiple lockdowns and an ever-changing landscape when it came to fan attendance. A key focus for us was never giving up. Whenever a barrier was placed in front of us, we worked to break it down. We had massive challenges with MIQ, logistical challenges associated with Covid and fan attendance. Our approach was not to accept that something could not be changed unless everything possible had been done to try to it. We worked collaboratively with our key partners to generate the best result for the tournament – and were often successful in achieving what had initially seemed impossible.
6. The goal
We never lost sight of the final goal – to deliver the best possible event regardless of the challenges. The vision for CWC22 was to "own the moment and lead the change". We were determined the tournament would play its part in the movement towards gender equity in sport; that it would elevate women's cricket and women's sport in general in the eyes of sports fans. Ultimately it was the players – who delivered the incredibly compelling action on the field – who ensured that happened. But to do that they needed to be provided a suitable stage. Our job as organisers was to provide that stage. Massive credit must go to New Zealand Cricket for its unwavering commitment to ensure the players had the best facilities, pitches and stadiums this country could provide.
The other key element was public engagement. For long periods we couldn't sell tickets. We ended up with just 11 days to sell out a World Cup final that didn't feature the home team. But it happened. And it happened because the fans, over an incredible month, had seen just how good these players really are.
We witnessed some remarkable things at the final, with Australia and England's stars producing record-breaking individual efforts in what was, for Australia, a world-beating performance. But perhaps even more remarkably, we witnessed a stadium packed full of Cantabrians rise to their feet to applaud them. There was no parochialism – just a true appreciation of incredible sporting talent. And that was very, very cool.
