Rebecca Yee has been awarded Cricket Development Officer of the Year at the NZC Community Cricket Awards 2017/18.

Rebecca was presented the award after a phenomenal season within the Bay of Plenty region, which was only her first season as a full-time development officer.

Rebecca's role targets the growth of girls cricket, and her contribution has been vital to the radical increase in player experience and participation, along with the strengthened formalised competition level.

In the Western Bay of Plenty area, Rebecca has increased Go Girls festival day entries by 67%. And through the introduction of Go Girls programmes in Lakelands, 160 previously unexperienced girls now play cricket.

Due to this impressive growth across girls cricket, the formalised Saturday grade girls-only competition increased to eight teams, nearly tripling the prior number.

Further, there is now a demand for a secondary schoolgirls hardball preseason training programme, which is one of the lowest participant demographics in New Zealand sport.

Rebecca's vision and determination in marketing has also positively impacted girls cricket, where she has built Go Girls and Junior NPL profiles across the NDCA.

When Rebecca was asked about her greatest achievement last year, she replied, "I used to coach representative teams for a number of years, but then realised I could assist cricket, to impact on so many more lives through a development role.

"Having my role confirmed as full-time last year was amazing as it allowed me to focus on enriching more lives through cricket with a particular focus on the girls game, and how Bay of Plenty are going to grow cricket to be the number one summer game for all."