Cricket Wellington is delighted to announce it has partnered with riders&elephants as Major Sponsor of Pathways and Performance.

The emotional culture, customer experience focused organisation, founded by former Wellington Firebird Jeremy Dean makes simple, human-focused games that reimagine the way people connect and grow within their organisations.

Their Emotional Culture, Customer Experience, and Wellbeing Decks are used by people in some of the world's most prominent and most inspiring organisations including Netflix, New Zealand Rugby and Air New Zealand.

“As a proud product of the Cricket Wellington Pathway system, I'm honoured riders&elephants has become the Major Sponsor of Pathways and Performance this year,” said founder and director Jeremy Dean.

“Cricket Wellington are doing world-class work in the Pathway and Performance space. I'm excited that R&E can help CW continue to grow and develop the next generation of world-class cricketers both on and off the field. 

“We have been fortunate to work with Cricket Wellington over the past four years. We're proud to have been a part of the evolution of the culture of Cricket Wellington and the Blaze and Firebirds.

“Becoming a major sponsor this year was a natural evolution of our partnership. We're thrilled we get the opportunity to support young, aspiring people in the wider Wellington region.”

Cricket Wellington staff and the Firebirds and Blaze teams have been utilising the power of riders&elephants Emotional Culture Deck to unlock the organisations emotional culture for the last three seasons, resulting in a transformation in the organisation’s internal direction.

Cricket Wellington general manger Liz Green said she was looking forward to seeing Wellington’s brightest cricketers continue their development with the support of riders&elephants and the Emotional Culture Deck.

“This is an extremely exciting new partnership and one that we believe will continue to grow the next generation of high performance cricketers in Wellington,” she said.

“The support that we have been fortunate enough to have from riders&elephants and their Emotional Culture Deck over the past three years has been so important to the development of our organisation’s culture and we’re looking forward to continuing that growth with riders&elephants officially alongside us.

“Performance is important but developing well-rounded athletes who are supported mentally and emotionally is also paramount, and with riders&elephants as a major partner we look forward to seeing those well-rounded players continue to flourish.”

Dean highlighted the importance of providing emotional and mental support for athletes at all levels of performance – a notion that Cricket Wellington is focused on delivering.

“I was fortunate to fulfil my dream of playing for Wellington, but I probably never entirely fulfilled my potential as a cricketer,” he said.

“In my era, which is not that long ago, there weren't mental and emotional support mechanisms to help a young aspiring athlete deal with the pressures and demands, so I'm grateful that Cricket Wellington now focuses on developing well-balanced athletes and putting programmes and support structures in place with mental and emotional wellbeing at the core - and not high performance at all costs.”

Article added: Monday 04 October 2021