Inside the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup
By Alex Pellis
Alex Pellis is a Bachelor of Commerce graduate, now working for the ICC T20 World Cup. Following the success of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, we asked him for an insider’s perspective.
The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 set records worldwide, but for me it was simply the absolute highlight of my professional career. The Australian women’s cricket team will get the bulk of the accolades, and deservedly so, but behind the scenes was a team of hard-working individuals doing what they love, which I was fortunate to be a part of.
When we first set out with our campaign to fill the MCG, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who believed we could do it, simply because it's never been done before. Before the tournament, the record crowd for a stand-alone women’s match in Australia was 5,650.
On Sunday 8 March, we proved “never been done” and “can't be done” are two very different things. 86,174 people attended the Women’s Final and helped shine a light on gender equality in this country and how strong women’s sports can be if properly supported.
In the process I learned a lot about the importance of being bold in your ambition, being passionate about what you do and how surrounding yourself with great people and a great working environment is so important to achieving your goals. Finding a career that aligns with your personal values is necessary to make the long nights and hard work all worth it. For me, being able to combine my enjoyment of marketing with my passion of sports and gender equality is the perfect alignment, and I encourage everyone to find that.
The Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) equips students with the skills and knowledge to understand and solve key business challenges. Make a difference to society, policy, and organisations while forging a pathway to a global career. Choose from majors including Accounting, Actuarial Studies, Economics, Finance, Management and Marketing.
These types of lessons are vital in your career success and require you to extend your learning beyond the classroom. Pairing my marketing skills with the workplace skills of stakeholder management, communication and professional relationship building has put me in a great position to succeed. I was able to form the foundations for these skills in my time studying the Bachelor of Commerce through the various extracurricular workshops, seminars and skills sessions on offer and I’d encourage everyone to make the most of these opportunities.
With the women’s tournament now behind me, it’s onto the men’s tournament, which all starts in mid-October. After that who knows what lies in store for me and my career. I took this role knowing it wasn’t going to be forever and I didn’t think twice about it, and it was the best decision I’ve made. The most important step you can take in your career journey is the next one, so I’m just going to take it one step at a time, focus on executing to the best of my ability and delivering a world-class tournament and trusting the rest will fall into place when the time comes.