Consultation document for recreational cricket in Gloucestershire 2020-2024 - Gloucestershire Cricket Board
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Consultation document for recreational cricket in Gloucestershire 2020–2024
Contents
Message from Kevin Langley 3
Gloucestershire Cricket Board Chairman
Mission Statement and Aims 4
Our Plan – Message from Steve Silk 5
Gloucestershire Cricket Board Chief Executive
The ECB Strategy 6
Grow and nurture the core 8
Inspire through elite teams 12
Make cricket accessible 16
Engage children and young people 20
Transform women’s and girls’ cricket 24
Support our cricket communities 28
What next? 34
Final word and thanks 35
2
Message from
Kevin Langley
Gloucestershire Cricket Board Chairman
All of us in cricket from the ECB through County Boards, County Clubs
and local Cricket Clubs have a massive responsibility to ensure that
the new funding opportunity that we now have is wisely spent and
invested in order to future proof our game.
This document is the outcome of consultation Consequently, please commence your reading with
with Leagues, Associations and other various an open mind. Now is the time to think positively,
organisations representing the workforce of imagine where we would like to be in five years’
our game across Gloucestershire. Additionally, time and join us by helping to plot milestones
a considerable amount of in-house work has been towards cricket as we have never known it before.
contributed by the Gloucestershire Cricket Board
team in pulling together the results of the research, We really can and must update our game and
identifying priorities and creating planned outcomes. ensure that cricket in Gloucestershire, England
and Wales is on the radar of all young people,
Inevitably across such a wide research area we all sporting players and all spectators of sport.
shall not be able to create a list of priority actions
with which every research participant will agree. We cannot fail!
However, I can guarantee that every suggestion and
comment will be taken in to account and discussed.
Whilst we know that we cannot please all the people
all of the time there has been considerable effort to
ensure that every voice has been heard.
I can guarantee that every
suggestion and comment will be
taken in to account and discussed.
3
Mission statement of the
Gloucestershire Cricket Board
‘To develop a fun and enabling environment in which
more people play and are involved in cricket’
AIMS / OUTCOMES
• To grow the number of people playing and being involved in cricket.
• To increase the number and variety of opportunities to experience cricket.
• To provide opportunities for all involved in cricket to be the best they can be.
• To improve the quality of the cricket experience.
• To develop and support a growing network of volunteers and professional staff.
• To improve and develop new indoor and outdoor cricketing facilities.
• To ensure a safe, fair and well managed environment for the game.
Values of the Gloucestershire
Cricket Board
Fun & Enjoyment – To ensure a sense of fun is at the heart of all we do in order
to create an environment where people enjoy working with, and for, each other.
Teamwork – To acknowledge that across all areas we can achieve more
together. To create an environment where sharing ideas is encouraged and
people’s views are listened to, with the aim of maximizing our collective talents.
Challenge and Innovation – To openly challenge ourselves and embrace
innovation across all tasks, refusing to put a limit on what we can achieve.
Inspire – To set an example that encourages and drives others to consistently
want to produce their best.
Commitment to Excellence – To seek to achieve excellence in all we do from the
smallest to the largest tasks. To approach every day with complete commitment
and to want to demonstrate the same high level of professionalism that we would
expect from others
4
Our Plan
Steve Silk – Gloucestershire Cricket Board Chief Executive
What a time to be involved in cricket. A clear Therefore, it is the intention of this document
England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) strategy to consult with all our stakeholders to ensure that
to lead the sport, significantly more investment everyone has their say on our game. It will be
coming into both the professional and recreational the case that we will align resource to meet the
games, and forms of cricket that are going to be needs of the centre (ECB), but we will also listen
born from our shores with the sole intention of to Gloucestershire’s needs and design our strategy
connecting more people to the game through and workforce accordingly.
either playing, attending or following.
This document has been produced following
The ECB strategy arrives in Gloucestershire at a great consultation with the GCB’s Cricketing Working
time for us as we have firm foundations from which Groups, Associations, Leagues of our County and the
to grow and from which we can take advantage of Staff and Directors of the GCB. It identifies the local
the opportunities that will be available to us. priorities that have come out of each of the 6 Pillars
of the ECB Strategy but, whilst this is a helpful start,
There are a number of areas of cricket in we need to hear from the clubs and your members
Gloucestershire that are particularly strong, mainly as to what you need from the game and where you
due to the hardworking and dedicated workforce believe most time and attention needs to be given.
of our clubs, leagues and paid organisations.
However, there are other parts to the game that This is a document that is to be used for consultative
continue in a satisfactory fashion, whilst other purposes only; once you have read it, we would like
areas need particular care and attention. your feedback on what you believe the priorities of
the GCB and cricket in Gloucestershire should be.
With the ECB’s new Strategy ‘Inspiring Generations’ This is your chance to have a real say and impact
we are now in a position to understand what on what the GCB delivers and takes on as
part we need to play to ensure the game remains opportunities for the next five years.
strong; however, as well as following the needs of
the National Governing Body (NGB), we also need It is as simple as this – if we are still doing
to look closer to home and understand what is the same things in 2025 that we are doing
required from, and for, cricket in Gloucestershire. now, we will have failed this strategy and
missed the opportunity to sustain, grow and
futureproof our game. Please provide us with
your feedback and what you believe to be the
priorities for cricket in Gloucestershire.
...it is the intention of this document to consult
with all our stakeholders to ensure that everyone
has their say on our game.
5
The ECB Strategy
Inspiring Generations
2020-24 PRIORITIES AND ACTIVITIES
GROW AND NURTURE INSPIRE THROUGH MAKE CRICKET
THE CORE ELITE TEAMS ACCESSIBLE
• Create an Infrastructure Investment • Increase investment in the county • Broaden cricket’s appeal through
Fund for FCCs talent pathway the New Competition
• Introduce a new Community • Incentivise the counties to develop • Create a new digital community
Investment Fund for FCCs and CCBs England players for cricket
• Invest in club facilities • Drive the performance system through • Install non-traditional playing facilities
technology and innovation in urban areas
• Develop the role of National Counties
Cricket (formerly Minor Counties) • Create heroes and connect them with • Continue to deliver the South Asian
a new generation of fans Action Plan
• Further invest in county competitions
• Launch a new participation product,
• Drive governance reform across the
linked to the New Competition
whole game
SUSTAINABILITY
BUILD RESERVES COMMERCIALISE THE STRATEGY
6
ECB’S PURPOSE
We connect communities and improve lives by inspiring
people to discover and share their passion for cricket
ECB’S 2024 AMBITION
A generation inspired to say that
cricket is Go to page 34
to find out how
a game for me
to give us your
feedback
ENGAGE CHILDREN TRANSFORM WOMEN’S SUPPORT OUR
AND YOUNG PEOPLE AND GIRLS’ CRICKET COMMUNITIES
• Double cricket participation in • Grow the base through participation • Double the number of volunteers
primary schools and facilities investment in the game
• Deliver a compelling and coordinated • Launch centres of excellence and • Create a game-wide approach to
recreational playing offer from age a new elite domestic structure Trusts and Foundations through the
five upwards cricket network
• Invest in girls’ county age group cricket
• Develop our safeguarding to • Develop a new wave of officials
• Deliver a girls’ secondary school
promote safe spaces for children and community coaches
programme
and young people
• Increase participation in
disability cricket
REVIEW AND CHALLENGE INTRODUCE A GAME-WIDE
THE GAME’S COST-BASE LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME
7
Grow and nurture
the core
Clubs have been at the heart of the GCB’s previous strategies and
some great work has been done with them. However, whilst we have
clubs that are growing in strength and providing their members with
shiny new training and ancillary facilities, we have a far greater number
that are more challenged for numbers and have facilities that need
care, attention and financial support.
The leagues of Gloucestershire Cricket are also Our aim over the next 5 years is to ensure that
in a far stronger place and there is now great there is a thriving club network at the heart
belief that Saturday cricket teams are playing in of the Gloucestershire game with a variety of
a structure that is right for all players and enables opportunities to enable all people to play the
all to play at the necessary and relevant level. version that they want.
Does this mean though that we are providing
cricket for all or does it mean that we purely have
a traditional form of the game on offer which
excites some?
KEY GLOUCESTERSHIRE FACTS
1.37m 186
individuals live grass pitches are played
49
traditional cricket
52
years old is the
in Gloucestershire, on by our cricket clubs leagues are delivered average age of
an estimated 260k each Saturday and Sunday a cricket pavilion
of which are interested during the summer (nationally)
in cricket
8
Within this pillar the ECB aims to:
• Create an Infrastructure Investment Fund for FCCs
• Introduce a new Community Investment Fund
for FCCs and CCBs
• Invest in Club Facilities
• Develop the role of National Counties Cricket
(formerly Minor Counties)
• Further Invest in county competitions
• Drive governance reform across the whole game
In addition, in Gloucestershire
we believe that the following
needs to be done:
• Introduce investment from ’non cricket’ backers
to grow the game
• Develop the right and appropriate structure for
‘Gloucestershire Cricket’
• Retain and develop our current clubs and players
• Improve cross-county working
• Ensure competition is appropriate through
leagues and clubs.
9
Area Priorities and Activities
Introduce a new • Develop a Gloucestershire Cricket Centre central to the County
Community Investment
• Work with the GCCC to develop and improve the facilities at the
Fund for FCCs
Bristol County Ground, which will enable the delivery of a wider range
and CCBs
of Community Initiatives
• Design and implement community programmes that will reach both
isolated and non-traditional audiences
• Work with the Local Councils to understand the priorities in each area
for Health, Wellbeing and Leisure and together construct community-based
solutions to reach target audiences
Invest in Club Facilities • Identify the right clubs in which to invest
so improving the
• Identify and develop Green Schemes to support the sustainability
experience for players
of Club Facilities
and families
• Identify which clubs are ‘at risk’ and then place dedicated support to them
• Support clubs to secure funds for equipment and machinery improvements
• Employ or upskill a Facility Development Lead to support new
or refurbishment projects
• Develop Clubs to have accessible facilities – Women and Girls, Disability
• Support Clubs to understand the value of working with other sports and
local organisations
• Ensure Wi-Fi is accessible in all clubs
• Work in partnership with the Local Councils to improve the standard of pay
and play pitches
• Develop tailored facilities for Women and Girls
Drive governance • Restructure the Gloucestershire Cricket Board, Board of Directors,
reform across the to ensure that it meets the Sport England Governance Code
whole game
• Develop closer working relationship with councils in regards to facility
maintenance and funding
• Work with leagues to bring them all under the auspices of the Cricket Board
• Work to understand and clarify the role of the GCB in all areas of cricket
• Develop a Gloucestershire Office in the north of the county
• Create greater visibility in the North of the County
• Support clubs with their set up and legal structures
• Design a new staffing structure to support and deliver the new strategy –
inclusive of succession planning
Greater local • Secure sponsors to bring in greater investment for the life of the strategy
investment coming
• Secure a significant non-cricket related financial backer for length
in to Gloucestershire
of strategy - enabling non ring-fenced funds
Cricket
• Work with sponsors to provide club ‘bundles’ for equipment and
coaching aids
• Support clubs to understand mechanics of Section 106 monies
and other funding opportunities
• Increase the number and range of partners (organisations)
10Area Priorities and Activities
Integration of the • Integrate GCB & GCCC to enable a coordinated approach to cricket
GCB and GCCC in Gloucestershire
• Work to deliver one identifiable Gloucestershire brand
• Develop a professional game strategy that has community at the heart of it
• Develop a culture that has Success, Fun, Inspiring, and Inclusivity at the
heart of it
Retention of current • Focus on increasing the number of people playing and the number of clubs
clubs and players, actively offering cricket
and the collaboration
• Recruit, train and develop club mentors to work with identified priority clubs
between clubs
• Invest time in sustaining cricket clubs
• Increase club development support to identify and work with clubs at risk
• Invest in procurement to save clubs money
• Support club volunteers with training and development opportunities
• Work to save cricket grounds from becoming lost to sport,
and especially cricket
• Capture the journey of players. Where will today’s All Stars be at age 15?
• Work to reduce the costs to cricket clubs for ‘normal’ things
• Reach out to clubs with which we have not been historically engaged
• Gain insight from clubs and players more regularly regarding their needs
and aspirations
Cross-border working • Work more closely with the South West Counties to ensure our region
is heard by the ECB
• Work more closely with South West counties to identify opportunities
to bring more money in to the game or/and to find efficiencies
• Develop relationships and partnerships with colleges / universities
• Work with neighbouring counties on staff recruitment
League/Cup Cricket • Develop a stand-alone Gloucestershire Cricket pathway inclusive
of a Gloucestershire Men’s Premier League
• Provide shorter format competitions/leagues for relevant
community groups
• Hold, control and manage a database for banned players
• Develop a Gloucestershire Women’s Premier League
• Work with District leagues to ensure the formats and rules are relevant
to the players playing
• Ensure all leagues have appropriate rules, regulations and processes
in place for dealing with poor behaviour
• Standardise player registration across all leagues
• Strengthen Gloucestershire Cricket by working with clubs who play
‘out of County’
• Develop a 40+ year old midweek league to bring players back to cricket
• All leagues to affiliate to the GCB
• Stabilise and then grow the number of people playing organised cricket
for clubs
• Stabilise and then grow the net number of teams playing organised cricket
11Inspire through elite teams
During the last 10 years we have changed the face of County and District
Age Group cricket. In 2010 we were the whipping boys for most teams
and yet now, through an improved club structure, a much-developed
league and competition framework and an enhanced set of programmes
for performance players, we are starting to see the fruits of our labour.
The majority of players in the Gloucestershire inspire young cricketers to be the bedrock of the
Academy now come through our own system club game as players, coaches and volunteers.
and for the first time, we have players receiving
International Honours. There is change afoot and whilst we have retained
this pillar within this consultation paper, and will
Young people are inspired by individual heroes include priorities for performance cricket in our final
performing and entertaining at the highest level ‘Gloucestershire Cricket’ Strategy, boys ‘Performance
and therefore cricket’s heroes have a unique Cricket’ will be moving across to the GCCC to lead
platform to inspire generations on an international on as dictated by the ECB. However, this does not
stage but, more importantly to us, on a local one. mean for a minute that we will be taking our eye
off the ball; instead we will be supporting this area
Developing homegrown talent and producing of the game more heavily through the professional
winning teams creates heroes to whom fans cricket department. Whilst performance cricket is
can more easily be connected and in doing so moving across to the GCCC fully the GCB will ensure
inspiring more people to say that ‘cricket is a game that its touch points with cricket clubs remain the
for me’. By increasing the talent pool, producing most important aspect of our work.
harder, more grounded and dedicated players, not
only will our county game improve, but we will also
KEY GLOUCESTERSHIRE FACTS
37
representative teams
628
players between
61%
of the GCCC’s
13
homegrown
are led by the GCB u9 and U17 received English qualified Gloucestershire players
Winter Performance professional players have been selected
Programmes in 2019 came through for regional or national
the Academy programmes in the last
two years
12Within this pillar the ECB aims to:
• Increase investment in the county talent pathway
• Incentivise the counties to develop England Players
• Drive the performance system through technology
and innovation
• Create heroes and connect them with a new
generation of fans
13Area Priorities and Activities
Increase investment • Develop a culture whereby players understand the values, commitment
in the county talent and dedication required to build a career in cricket
pathway
• Produce a player pathway strategy that is available to all
• Provide a performance programme that is accessible to all
• Produce a performance coaching team that is aligned to an appropriate
age and stage of development
• Increase resources in the performance pathway to provide a greater
chance of success
• Identify investors/supporters to enhance the performance pathway
• Increase investment to reduce costs for parents / clubs
• Increase the contact time with high-quality specialist coaches
• Develop a performance pathway that not only produces 1st class cricketers
but also inspires young cricketers to be the bedrock of the club game
• Deliver an open, inclusive and welcoming trial process
• Improve and increase the scouting process (internally & regionally)
• Recruit local scouts to identify local talent in ‘hard to reach’ areas
• Ensure all players have an appropriate and developmental practice
and match play programme
• Provide ongoing support for coach development
Drive the performance • Develop a successful Talent ID model that can be used across all
system through performance cricket
technology and
• Develop and offer a performance platform that can enable coaches and
innovation
players at all levels of a player’s development to access and input information
Create heroes and • Increase the number of visits to local clubs, teams and leagues from
connect them with Gloucestershire/Western Storm/England players
a new generation
• Develop a community strategy that sees the professional game closer
of fans
to the recreational game - player visits, ticket offers
• Influence GCCC and their players/coaches to be available pre and post
games for pictures/autographs to increase young player engagement
• Utilise the professional game to create role models and heroes across all
aspects of cricket - officials, coaches
• Work with the GCCC to create promotional videos for areas of work, specific
clubs and specific individuals to increase connection
• Ensure the professional playing staff are more closely connected to the
‘Gloucestershire’ community and understand the reason for doing so
• Ensure Gloucestershire professionals are playing in the local club game
• Look to recruit players, where possible, from all over the world to ensure
a connection with all communities of Gloucestershire
14Go to page 34
to find out how
to give us your
feedback
15Make cricket accessible
Our aim is to give more people the opportunity to engage with cricket
more often. We need to ensure that it is accessible, sustainable and
supports the harder to reach communities.
We recognise that, whilst cricket is still a popular of cricket, the image is of traditional cricket
sport, it now has so many challengers for people’s on a Saturday in whites or junior boys’ cricket on
attention and time. We must ensure that people a shorter pitch. We need to provide other options
do not switch off from cricket but instead think so that people think differently and consider
about accessing the sport twelve months a year. indoor cricket, short format cricket, walking cricket,
We must look at our programmes of activity and seniors cricket – all of which can be played all year
learn from some of the already great work that round with either hard or soft balls.
Chance to Shine Street and Lords Taverners,
through Wicketz and Supers1s, provide through The sport needs to look different in different
their all year-round model – providing continuity areas (rural and urban) and be of a type that will
and an opportunity to always play in a non- encourage and motivate people to play and get
traditional and accessible format. involved. We need to think more about not just
what it looks like but when it is offered to ensure
We must do more to encourage a new audience that it fits in with the lifestyles of the various
from a broader cross-section of people to engage communities. When people ask what cricket means
with cricket and make it even more accessible in 2025, we want a variety of different answers!
to those who already do. When most people think
KEY GLOUCESTERSHIRE FACTS
198
children & young adults
428
coaching hours
21
BAME clubs in
8,572
people follow GCB
engaged through delivered through Gloucestershire via social media
Chance to Shine Street Chance to Shine Street and yet only 1 owns
in 2019, 75% of this figure in 2019 their own ground and only
are BAME 2 have junior sections
16Within this pillar the ECB aims to:
• Broaden cricket’s appeal through the
New Competition
• Create a new digital community for cricket (16)
• Install non-traditional playing facilities
in urban areas
• Continue to deliver the South Asian Action Plan
• Launch a new participation product linked
to the New Competition
In addition, in Gloucestershire
we believe that the following
needs to be done:
• Improve Cricket in the City of Gloucester
• Connect Communities and improve lives
17Area Priorities and Activities
Broaden cricket’s • Develop leagues that will be more popular amongst players
appeal through the (100 ball or 30 overs for example)
New Competition
• Develop cricket with alternative formats to encourage greater participation
• Take advantage of THE HUNDRED to revolutionise cricket in Gloucestershire,
adapting elements of junior and senior cricket to mirror the new competition
• Develop Gloucestershire players who go on to play in The Hundred
• Piggy back on Gloucestershire players who are selected for Hundred teams
– using them to inspire future and current players
• Work with GCCC to ensure that if ECB decides to increase the number of
Hundred Teams then Bristol is the next venue of choice
Create a new digital • Employ a full time Marketing and Communications Officer for the
community for cricket recreational game
• Produce a Digital Strategy for Gloucestershire Cricket
• Create a GCB app for all clubs and players to use
• Support clubs on the use of Play-Cricket
• Produce high quality communications for supporting the users of scoring apps
• Deliver Social Media workshops
• Improve the marketing and communication of the variety of opportunities
there are to get involved and/or play
• Improve social media presence and content for ground staff
• Improved and regular correspondence to all current and future ACO
members, umpires and scorers
• Influence and work with ECB to continue to develop Play-Cricket and other
central cricket systems
• Reduce the number of websites for leagues and competitions
Install non-traditional • Conduct a city-wide audit of where cricket can be played –
playing facilities in indoors and outdoors
urban areas
• Increasing the number of non-turf pitches on cricket squares to reduce
workload for club groundstaff
• Influence schools to develop cricket facilities for community/club use
• Develop community outdoor net facilities in urban areas
• Increase number of high-quality indoor cricket facilities across the county
• Conduct a mapping and cost exercise for indoor ‘quality’ cricket provision
• Work with cricket leagues to ensure flexible approach to facilities used
• Work with councils to develop ‘pay and play’ facilities in urban areas
18Area Priorities and Activities
Continue to deliver the • Employ an Officer to specifically work on the development of cricket
South Asian Action in the City of Bristol
Plan
• Identify, develop and create Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) role models
• Deliver cricket workshops for females in BAME communities on how
they can get involved in playing and volunteering
• Employ Community Champions who act as role models in the BAME
community and with BAME priority clubs
• Increase the number of BAME clubs in Bristol & Gloucester with
junior sections
• Work with existing BAME clubs to develop sustainable junior sections
• Provide greater clarity and improved communications on pathways
and opportunities for aspiring BAME players
• Support BAME clubs to become owners of their own facilities
• Improve engagement and communication with BAME community
• Set up a Bristol BAME focus group that meets regularly
• Recruit female champions to drive local BAME projects
Launch a new • Provide junior cricket formats that mirror The Hundred in both soft ball
participation product, and hard ball formats
linked to the New
• Launch a junior version of The Hundred competition at U9/10/11 age groups
Competition
and position it as the new format for the first generation of All Stars
Fix Cricket in • Design and deliver a strategy to engage more young people with cricket
Gloucester in Gloucester
• Increase the number of clubs in Gloucester with junior sections
• Increase the number of teams playing cricket from Gloucester clubs
• Deliver community-based cricket schemes to encourage disengaged young
people to get involved
• Employ an Officer to specifically work on the development of cricket
in the City of Gloucester
Connect Communities • Set up a Charitable Foundation
and improve lives
• Deliver a ‘cricket for good’ offer across the county – social wellbeing,
inclusivity, tackling mental health etc.
• Employ staff to work specifically in the ‘cricket for good’ area
• Increase the number of turn up and play opportunities across the county
Engage with University Student Union sections to:
• Link students to local clubs
• Link students to volunteering opportunities
• Provide walking cricket in all urban areas
• Use the brand of Gloucestershire Cricket to tackle social agendas
• Develop & deliver social impact projects
• Develop community links in targeted areas
19Engage children
and young people
To ensure cricket is a thriving, exciting and heavily resourced game
in future years and for future generations considerable time and effort
must be given to ensure that the pathway for young cricketers is
appropriate and well considered.
Whilst, nationally, 1.2 million children are playing of the number of young people that could be
cricket, many of these are only picking a bat or ball reached. We are also aware that there are specific
up at school a couple of times a year and very few age group competitions that are in decline as
of these children would class themselves as fans people of certain ages are falling out of love with
of the sport. In Gloucestershire we have worked the sport.
tirelessly to buck this trend and to reach more
children through our schools-based work and We must ensure that we build on the great work
through our All Stars (ASC) support, but even with of All Stars, develop the next part of the pathway
this so much more can be done. to the same quality, and continue to offer young
people the format and type of cricket with which
In working in nearly 50% of Primary Schools and they will fall, and stay, in love.
having 93 clubs with junior sections, we know that
we are still only scratching the surface in terms
KEY GLOUCESTERSHIRE FACTS
2,635 94
All Stars participants of 175 primarily affiliated
52%
of Primary schools
26,590
state school pupils
took park across Gloucestershire clubs were delivered to in received school coaching
71 programmes in 2019 have junior sections this academic year in 2019 via Gloucestershire
of which 23 clubs with (207 of 400) Chance to Shine Primary
junior sections do not Programme
run All Stars
20Within this pillar the ECB aims to:
• Double cricket participation in primary schools
• Deliver a compelling and coordinated recreational
playing offer from age five upwards
• Develop our safeguarding to promote safe spaces
for children and young people
In addition, in Gloucestershire
we believe that the following
needs to be done:
• Deliver a boy’s secondary school programme
• Deliver the Spirit of Cricket
21Area Priorities and Activities
Double cricket • Increase the number of GCB staff to deliver in schools
participation in
• Increase the amount of multi skills delivery taking place in the winter terms
primary schools
• Deliver local cluster festivals at local clubs so ensuring a greater connection
between clubs and schools
• Put bats and balls in to more children’s hands
• Train University/College students to deliver on core programmes
• Increase the number of schools delivered to
• Increase the number and quality of Teacher Training opportunities
• Improve the quality of delivery by ongoing support and development,
through mentors, for coaching staff
• Invest in Key Stage 2 delivery – not just ASC year groups
• Deliver a local all year-round competition calendar
• Produce marketing materials to support school pupils to understand where
they can play next
• Greater importance put on the relationship between school and local club.
Formal partnerships to be signed ensuring less reliance on GCB delivery
• BAME focused CTS/ASC delivery, targeting inner city communities
Deliver a compelling • Increase the number of clubs with U9 girl sections
and coordinated
• Increase the number of clubs with junior sections
recreational playing
offer from age five • Increase the number of clubs and community projects offering All Stars Cricket
upwards • Develop an U9 offer that leads on from ASC including a strategy for transition
• Reach out to schools that we are not engaged with to understand why and
what can be done
• Offer indoor youth leagues across the county and across all ages
• Offer and deliver Special Education Needs (SEN) All Stars programmes
• Design and implement an appropriate club competition structure that
engages, excites and retains players
• Design a coaching programme for clubs to use across all age groups
• Explore opportunities to make 1-1 or 2-1 coaching accessible to more children
• Develop retention strategies for U15s and U17s cricket – boys and girls
• Develop coherent and visible pathways for both the boys and girls games
from introduction to the professional arena
• Produce a 12-month cricket offer for players of all ages
22Area Priorities and Activities
Develop our • Provide additional bespoke training for Club Welfare Officers
safeguarding to
• Develop strategy for ensuring safeguarding is as strong in non Clubmark
promote safe spaces
clubs as it is in Clubmark clubs
for children and
young people • Improve safety standards/safeguarding policies for minors who score
and umpire
• Improve monitoring and support of all club welfare officers
• Raise importance of social media safeguarding
• Policing clubs to ensure they have correct insurance/DBS
• Increase the numbers of junior sections that are Clubmark accredited
• Employ a County Welfare Officer (possibly working across more than one
County on a part time basis)
Deliver a boy’s • Identify funding to enable delivery of a secondary school programme
secondary school
• Work with secondary schools to devise a strategy to grow cricket
programme
participation and competition and to stem the drop off at U12 and U15
• Increase in the number of secondary schools that are engaged with the GCB
• Increase in the number of schools that enter competitions
• Engage with students to understand what it is they want from cricket
• Produce a 12-month cricket offer for players of all ages
• Deliver a CPD and mentoring programme for the development of teachers
and PE staff
• Offer and deliver more courses for students of 14+
• Create a connection between schools and MCC Hubs
(only in identified areas of Bristol)
Deliver the Spirit • Develop a strategy to ensure the Spirit of Cricket is upheld and taken more
of Cricket seriously in all junior cricket
Go to page 34
to find out how
to give us your
feedback
23Transform womens’
and girls’ cricket
Our aim in Gloucestershire is to grow the Womens’ and Girls’ game
significantly and make it far more prominent and visible. Whilst we
start from a good base, the vast majority of cricket clubs still do not
recognise, or provide for, the female game, and many of those that do,
do so in such a way that means it is separate to wider club life and not
integrated fabric in the fabric of the club.
Our purpose across these 5 years is to ensure that Over the next 5 years the ECB is committing
Cricket in Gloucestershire truly works towards to invest £50 million in this area of the game.
becoming a gender-neutral sport. It is the game’s This provides us with an opportunity to build on
biggest growth opportunity and through different the great start that has been made and ensure
initiatives that have been led centrally or in-house, that, every young girl or adult female who wants
we have seen what progress can be made with to get involved in cricket, can do so and a local
resource and attention. venue which is appropriate for them and provides
them with a welcoming and inclusive environment.
KEY GLOUCESTERSHIRE FACTS
44
clubs now offer
25
U11 girls’ teams
8
new leagues
73
teams entered
some form of womens’ took part in Festivals were introduced Womens Softball
and/or girls’ cricket and/or leagues in 2019 in 2019 festivals in 2018 –
(166% growth) up from 27 in 2017
24Within this pillar the ECB aims to:
• Grow the base through participation and
facilities investment
• Launch centres of excellence and a new elite
domestic structure
• Invest in girls’ county age group cricket
• Deliver a girls secondary school programme
25Area Priorities and Activities
Grow the base through • Work with Cricket Clubs to develop female friendly facilities
participation and
• Work with clubs to ensure that there is fair and equal access to club playing
facilities investment
and training facilities
• Increase in the number of clubs with girls and/or women’s sections
• Ensure women / girls cricket has representation and decision-making capacity
on all committees – either by females or with female cricket advocates
• Enhance and develop the ‘Gloucestershire Women’s Cricket Offer
(formats, timings)
• Create more female role models in Gloucestershire
• Subsidise females to become coaches and/or officials
• Develop a strategy and programme to support those transitioning
from softball to hardball cricket
• Increase the number of clubs with U9 girl sections
• Develop the Club U15 Hardball offer
• Ensure the delivery team within the GCB effectively represents the
communities it is working with
• Improved targeted marketing to engage more females and to advertise
all possible opportunities to be involved
• Provide inspiring training opportunities to get more women and girls involved
• Deliver female only Coaching courses – Foundation 1 and 2
• Work with target girls’ groups to increase participation (rainbows, brownies)
• Support cricket clubs to fully integrate Women and girls’ sections so part
of the everyday, wider club offer
• Engage more women in voluntary roles at cricket clubs
• Work with leagues (junior and senior) to support them being gender neutral
• Improve the ‘Find a Club’ section on the GCB website
• Strategy for retention of players who fall out of CAG system
Invest in girls’ county • Improve the County Age Group (CAG) Programme with additional resource
age group cricket
• Identify or develop new improved training facilities for girls
• Identify, develop and create more female role models working in the
Girls Performance Programme
• Develop relationships with Independent Schools
• Increase investment to reduce costs for parents / clubs
• Provide opportunities for high performing girls to tour annually
or bi-annually to be exposed to a variety of playing conditions
• Provide resource to enable the Girls CAG teams to play more fixtures
per season
26Area Priorities and Activities
Deliver a girls’ • Deliver a coordinated and mapped girls secondary school programme
secondary school to increase game and club participation
programme
• Develop strategies for signposting and integrating ‘school playing girls’
into local and existing girls’ sections
• Ensure effective marketing and signposting is in place to enable
movement to local clubs
• Create, develop and utilise female role models in Gloucestershire
to deliver schools programmes
• Deliver a continuous professional development and mentoring
programme for the development of teachers and PE staff
27Support our
cricket communities
Cricket cannot operate without volunteers, officials, groundstaff
and coaches – they are quite simply the most important people
in our sport and the numbers of them are sadly on the decline.
Clubs and programmes that run well are as Without groundstaff we do not have pitches;
a consequence of the people behind them and without officials we do not have a sport that
when we come across clubs that are booming it is managed properly or have players who are
isn’t a surprise to hear that they either have satisfied. Without coaches we do not bring new
a devoted individual who spends countless hours players to the game, enthuse and develop them
per week on their club or they are a club with an to stay in the game. It’s quite simple... if we do
abundance of volunteers who all have specific roles. not do more to find, support and develop more of
these voluntary groups then our game will struggle,
Volunteer organisations, like clubs, are so fragile and we will lose people and players from it.
up and down the country. This is because so many
clubs are led and managed by a few, and the few
receive very little support either through their own
network or from the National Governing Body.
KEY GLOUCESTERSHIRE FACTS
122
All Stars Activators
32
women have completed
18
Coach Support Worker
234
ACO Cricket Officials
were trained in 2019 the level 2 course over Courses have been run across umpires and
(38 of which were female) the last 6 years at clubs since 2014 scorers
28Within this pillar the ECB aims to:
• Double the number of volunteers in the game
• Create a game wide approach to Trusts and
Foundations through the cricket network
• Develop a new wave of officials and
community coaches
• Increase participation in disability cricket
29Area Priorities and Activities
Double the number of • Produce a Gloucestershire strategy for the support and development
volunteers in the game of new and existing volunteers
• Provide clubs with generic job descriptions for club officers
• Showcase case studies of clubs that ‘have it right’ to help and support
other clubs
• Deliver Reward and Recognition events for deserving people across
our game as a small way of saying thank you
• Develop the National OSCAs (Outstanding Service to Cricket Awards)
locally with additional awards and local meaning
• Provide leadership courses for club volunteers
• Provide marketing and communication training for club volunteers
so they can reach further to engage more
• Invest in courses to inspire young people to volunteer
• Increase the support given to Groundsmen through the Gloucestershire
Grounds Association
• Increase the number of groundstaff including a campaign to recruit
female groundstaff
• Grow the number of volunteers in all areas of the game
• Develop a Reward and Recognition programme designed for
Gloucestershire young volunteers
• Work with cricket clubs on a 1 officer to 1 role solution
• Identify and engage with voluntary bureaus to identify people from
outside of the game
• Work with clubs and leagues to advertise voluntary needs locally
Create a game wide • Gloucestershire Cricket to have a leading Charitable Foundation
approach to Trusts and
• Gloucestershire Cricket Board and Gloucestershire Cricket Trust
Foundations through
to dissolve and become Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation
the cricket network
• Set up an active Gloucestershire Cricket Charity that delivers and
fundraises for Cricket and for Cricket for good causes
Recruit a Board of Trustees that has experience of:
• Leading the recreational game
• Social impact work
• Fundraising
Go to page 34
to find out how
to give us your
feedback
30Area Priorities and Activities
Develop a new wave • Develop a strategy to increase the number of active officials
of officials and
• Work with all leagues to drive a campaign for more qualified and
community coaches
neutral umpires
• Subsidisation of official’s courses
• Provide a pathway with relevant courses and workshops for officials
• Gain a better understanding of what deters ‘target groups’ from
getting involved
• Develop courses and training opportunities for key target groups
• Increase the number of female umpires
• Provide support, training and marketing to increase the number of scorers
• Work with clubs to ensure that they provide the facilities for on-line scoring
• Improve marketing to reach more people across the county with all
volunteer opportunities
• Engage with Schools and Universities to access Duke of Edinburgh
and appropriate placement students to volunteer & develop in cricket
• Develop a strategy for increasing the number of young coaches
• Deliver age specific support workshops for club volunteers and coaches
(All Stars parents, U9 etc.)
• Provide regionalised coaching courses – All Stars, F1, F2
• Develop a strategy to increase the number of active coaches
(Target active audiences - All Stars Parents, Players)
• Identify and support a female coach developer
• Increase and develop the current Gloucestershire tutor workforce
• Improve advertising of all courses, especially Introductory courses
• Make courses more accessible by working with partners to reduce costs
• Provide digital products to support volunteers – video, Q&A’s
• Form a new Gloucestershire Coaches Association with clear levels
of authority and budget
• Increase the number of Gloucestershire coaches signing up to ECBCA
• Create an active database of coaches and those working in youth cricket
• Provide excellent CPD opportunities for coaches –
CAG, Club, BAME, W&G pathways
• Use new F1 course to get a swell of females involved in coaching
Increase participation • Develop a clearly defined pathway for disabled cricketers
in disability cricket
• Work with Lords Taverners to ensure the continuation of the
Super 1s programme
• Utilise CTS funding to support delivery in SEN schools
• Identify partners to support disability work
• Increase the number of volunteers, umpires, scorers, coaches for
the disabled game
• Identify solutions to support county disability travel arrangements
• Develop ‘Home’ grounds for County disability teams
• Increase GCB Staff resource to work in disability cricket
• Identify and support clubs to be homes for disability cricket
• Increase the number of County disability teams
• Improve club facilities for disabled players – accessible facilities
• Increase the number of SEN cricket festivals across each year to enable
more people to engage in the sport.
• Improve and increase the scouting process both locally and regionally
31332
teachers registered
on the Chance to Shine
portal in Gloucestershire
3244
clubs currently Clubmark
accredited with a further
9 registered
3,396
hours delivered
in Primary and Secondary
Schools so far in 2019 33What next?
The GCB has supported this document with an
online form and a word document so that you can
provide feedback to us on what you believe to be the
priorities for our game.
We now want to collect your thoughts on what you believe to be the priorities
from this document. To enable us to do this we have produced an online
survey where you are able to rank your priorities, and to provide us with any
that you believe may have been missed – please take this opportunity.
To provide us with this feedback please visit
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/76TQTQS
Alternatively, we have replicated the online survey in to a word document so
that you are also able to complete it this way.
We are providing all stakeholders with just over 1 month for feedback,
requesting that all online surveys or word documents are completed and
returned by Friday 30th August. All feedback will need to be completed via the
online survey or on the Consultation Feedback Sheet.
By feeding back in this way it will ensure that the next parts of developing
a ‘Gloucestershire Cricket Strategy for 2020-2024’ will be relatively simple,
as we will simply pull the highest ranked priorities, listed by our stakeholders,
in to the final version.
Working alongside this Gloucestershire Recreational Game Strategy is
a Gloucestershire Professional Game Strategy. Once both are complete in their
own individual rights, members from the two organisations of Gloucestershire
Cricket Board and Gloucestershire County Cricket Club will put together the
component parts and produce one strategy for the game in Gloucestershire.
This will then be presented to the ECB between October 2019 and the end
of January 2020.
The Gloucestershire Cricket Strategy will aim to be launched in early 2020.
34Our thanks
To develop the pages that you have read has taken a considerable amount
of work from people across Gloucestershire. The GCB would like to thank each
of them for their time and effort in producing the information and priority
areas as identified in this document.
Our special thanks go to the members of the following working groups:
Youth League & Performance Development Group
Women & Girls Development Group
Disability Development Group
Senior Clubs & Competitions Development Group
Bristol Cricket Development Group
Gloucestershire County Cricket League
Gloucestershire Grounds Association
Gloucestershire Association of Cricket Officials
Gloucestershire Coaches Association
Gloucestershire & Wiltshire Talent Pathway Steering Group
Staff and Directors of GCB
35Gloucestershire Cricket Board
The County Ground, Nevil Road, Bristol BS7 9EJ
(0117) 910 8027 • steve.silk@glosccc.co.uk
gloucestershirecricketboard.comYou can also read
