Cricket East

Over the past 12 months Cricket East has been writing its Facilities Strategy for 2023-2033. Other county cricket boards across England and Wales have been tasked to complete the same piece of work, by request of ECB and this gave us a fantastic opportunity to review our current facilities across both Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire respectfully.

We reached out to our cricketing communities, clubs, and schools for their views through this piece of work and ensured we covered a broad range of topics from both Participation & Growth Initiatives and the performance pathway. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us with this piece of work, with a special thanks to the following people who sat on a steering group and gave considerable time and effort.

·Christine Sprowell (Living Sport)
·Graham Simpson (Beactive)
·Syed Shah (Local property surveyor)
·Richard Darwin (Cricket East)
·Sam Rose (Cricket East)
A huge thanks also to other Cricket East staff for their time, effort, and contributions towards this piece of work.

A copy of the facilities strategy is available in PDF form via the bottom of this page, but to summarise and conclude our findings, recommendations and future commitments are as follows.

Cricket East will:

1.Support Traditional Clubs to develop their facilities to meet or exceed the “Good” model, with accessibility for all as a priority.

2.Establish a ‘Grounds Working Group’ to look in more depth at the challenges facing clubs and volunteers.

3.Ensure female participation is prioritisedin traditional clubs.

4.Commit to the development of Local Cricket Trusts in Bedford, Luton, and Peterborough – ensuring every Cricket Club or team have a place to call home.

5.Ensure clubs, teams and our performance pathway have access to Indoor Training provision which is fit for purpose.

6.Develop facility partnerships with schools which provide the best possible facilities for the school and community cricket in the local area.

7.Identify and develop key sites for performance cricket.

8.Continue to work with ECB and other key partners to prioritise the game’s response to climate change.

Progress has already been made across several of the commitments above, and we will continue to update you all with news across this space with some exciting announcements on new facilities coming to the local area soon.

If you have any questions about the strategy, or would like to know more please contact Sam Rose via sam.rose@cricketeast.co.uk