President of the Ghana Cricket Association, Mr. Emmanuel Owusu-Ansah Asare, has been nominated for an award at the 49th edition of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) Awards night.
The SWAG Awards is the longest-running awards scheme in the country that honours deserving athletes and officials annually.
The President will be decorated with a Dedication and Valour honour at the awards night scheduled to take place at the Accra International Conference Centre on Friday, January 24, 2024.
Mr. Emmanuel Owusu-Ansah Asare began his cricket days in the 1970s as a national team player and moved on to become a national umpire and then a national team manager.
He rose through the ranks to become the Vice President of the Ghana Cricket Association and currently the President of the federation.
He has also served as the Acting Chairperson of the Africa Cricket Association (ACA), the NVAM Africa Representative, and a member of the Draughting of Legislative Instrument for the National Sports Authority (Act 934 of 2016).
Mr. Asare also serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Ghana Olympic Committee.
Some of his notable achievements are that, as the head of the P.E. department in Achimota School, his initiative to include females in the Annual Inter-House Cricket Competition in 1989 provided the foundation for female cricket development in Ghana.
Under his leadership, GCA, in collaboration with ICC, brought the Cricket World Cup Trophy Tour to Ghana in 2022, for the first time in the history of the sport.
GCA followed up with cricket becoming a sports code for the first time since 1965 in the 13th African Games, which successfully took place in Ghana in February 2024.
Additionally, GCA has constructed turf wickets for use in Ghana (2023). This is a remarkable achievement considering cricket has been played in Ghana since colonial times and on artificial wickets.
Under the leadership of Mr. Asare, GCA has improved the infrastructure to enhance the promotion and development of the game in the country and has successfully lobbied for the inclusion of cricket in the Ghana Education Services curriculum of Colleges of Education for teacher preparation.
