Cricket Changemakers - Global

Cricket Changemakers is a youth-led programme that supports young people to use cricket as a tool for social change. It recognises that adolescents are not just participants in programmes, but experts in their own lives, and powerful agents of change in their communities.

Through play-based workshops, young people explore the challenges they face, identify what matters most to them, and design cricket-based actions to create change. Using games and creative tasks like community mapping, challenge busting, and team targets, Changemakers move from reflection to action, developing solutions that are locally relevant and youth-owned.

In Nepal, Cricket Changemakers played a central role in designing and delivering a gender-transformative cricket programme that tackled restrictive gender norms affecting girls’ education, mobility, and participation in sport. In Brazil, young people identified exposure to drugs, violence, and gangs as key challenges and set a shared goal of making cricket a “safe haven”, a space of safety, belonging, and positive identity. Their action plans included family events, school festivals, values-based coaching, and social media campaigns to amplify youth voice.

What makes Cricket Changemakers unique is its focus on leadership through play. Young people learn to speak up, work as a team, engage adults, and influence systems around them, all through cricket. They may not be the best players on the field, but they are often the most committed to making a difference.

Across countries and contexts, Cricket Changemakers shows what happens when young people are trusted, supported, and given the tools to lead: cricket becomes a platform for lasting social change.