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Based on the project of the Asian Tsunami Benefit Cricket Match, imagine you are project managing that project and identify who might have been key stakeholders and their needs and develop an outline of a communications plan.
On 26 December 2004 an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred in the Indian Ocean, just off the western coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The sudden vertical rise in the seabed by several metres displaced massive volumes of water, which resulted in a tsunami that devastated the shores of Bangladesh, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, South India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and as far away as Kenya and Somalia. The earthquake and tsunami were thought to have caused over 200,000 deaths, while whole sections of coastline were devastated, destroying the businesses and homes of millions, triggering a widespread humanitarian response.
Throughout Australia many appeals were launched to raise money for humanitarian agencies to provide relief to the many injured and traumatised survivors.
The international cricket community launched one such appeal. With cricket being a popular sport in many of the affected countries, especially India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and several Sri Lankan players’ families injured in the tsunami, the cricket community decided to organise a charity cricket match to raise funds for the relief effort. The match between an Asian team and Rest of World team, featuring some of the world’s best players from Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, England and Bangladesh, was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 10 January 2005.
Organising the charity match was a remarkable exercise in project management. With a busy international cricket calendar, organising matches between international teams usually takes approximately a year, yet this match was organised in the days immediately after the tsunami struck and played just 15 days later. Cricket Australia, the governing body of cricket in Australia, volunteered to organise and host the match and quickly set about the complicated process of organising the match.
Among the many tasks that needed to be completed were gaining permission from cricket’s world governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC) to host the match, as well as the blessing of the game’s regional governing body in Asia, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), and the individual cricketing authorities in each of the countries which provided players for the match.
The next step was to gain support from the International Cricket Players’ Association. This was quickly obtained, as the players were keen to support the match. Organising the teams proved to be a difficult exercise. Although Australia, Pakistan and the West Indies were playing in Australia at the time, the New Zealand, Indian and Bangladeshi players were at home, as were Sri Lankan players who had cancelled the remainder of their tour to New Zealand after the tsunami struck. The majority of the English team and all of the South African players were engaged in a cricket series in South Africa at the time and, unfortunately, the best players from these two teams were unable to participate.
Among the many other tasks that had to be completed were gaining permission from the Melbourne Cricket Ground’s owners, the Melbourne Cricket Club, to use the stadium for the match and arranging to get the players to Melbourne from all around the world at short notice.
Publicising the match via television and print media, preparing a pitch, issuing tickets and designing and making players’ uniforms, tasks that usually take months to prepare, were all accomplished promptly. A wide range of sponsorships were organised, including a one million dollar naming rights sponsorship, and hundreds of corporate boxes were sold at short notice during the traditional summer holiday period.
Negotiations were also required to be undertaken with construction unions and building contractors to stop work for a day, as the Melbourne Cricket Ground was in the middle of a redevelopment in preparation for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. In addition, enough staff to run a match with a crowd of 70,000, such as ground staff, curators, security personnel, catering staff and cleaners, needed to be obtained.
The match proved to be a tremendous success, raising over $15 million for the relief agency World Vision’s Asia Tsunami Appeal.
Create a communications management plan based on the scenario provided.
(1,000–2,500 words)
