Luton Core City-Community Engagement Focus Group Minutes-Winter Cricket Offers- 15th Nov 2021
Venue: Crawley Green Sports & Social Club Luton-7pm
Present: Dave Summers(DS), Muhammed(Uzair) Shafiq(US), Siraj Nasir(SN), Ehtisham Sadaq(ES), Hacheem Nawab(HN)-Sri Lankan community, Reuben Bailey(RB)-Caribbean community
Apologies: Amran Malik, Siddrah Sheikh
Introduction:
The purpose of the meeting was to share activity information, opportunities and learning from one another that had been developed to date. The ECB Core City project very much wanted to support/explore communities engaging with one another through the game to support wider community cohesion/integration. A number of those present had also recently completed the Foundation 1 coaching course held in the town earlier in the year.
DS thanked everyone for attending and for their efforts in driving the early stages of development of this current winter’s Core City town wide cricket offers, all seeking to be inclusive across the towns local communities as much as possible. Coming out of the lockdown phases of the pandemic, had unsurprisingly, seen people and communities were still very cautious on what they felt comfortable attending particularly indoors. DS explained the Core City current focus on: Hubs, Partnerships, Listening and Support. Funding was currently being provided to support facility hire and ensuring coaches were recompensed for their time in planning and running these activities appropriately/safely.
He wished to also recognise Amran’s huge work with expanding the footprint, reach and connectivity of the whole game including via the Lords Taverners Wicketz project 8-19yrs along with his work in organising the current limited available facility space post Covid. The Wicketz project was an integral part of the Core City project. It was also important to mention the impact, with key partner support, Amran had made including with e.g: Team Beds & Luton, Active Luton and Luton Borough Council involving summer holiday hunger activities, which will take place again at the end of the year along with him leading the response in so many ways to the recent latest Afghan arrivals in the town.
Case studies had importantly already captured the huge development of the women and girl’s game in the town and this was also to be celebrated along with the very active female workforce in this regard.
DS asked each person to summarise their activities to date:
>US explained that in addition to working across a number of Wicketz sessions he was involved in Crickball on Saturday afternoons at Dallow Road Centre MUGA for 2 hours with u16,s involving 1 hour of football and 1 hour of cricket. Numbers had grown to 22 last week with a strong South Asian profile. They were playing the cricket matches in 6 over innings with a roll on and off-3 team format.
>SN explained that the adult indoor league was held on Saturday afternoons at Inspire Sports village currently with 4 teams x6 a side, there was however interest from a 5th team. Due to extra space it was possible to run 2 games at one time. They had recently started a league format involving players retiring at 24 runs and early innings power-plays. There was representation from players involved in both the towns Midweek and Hatters Leagues. One of the sides Rising Stars had representation from the Afghan community(involved also in further Core City activities on Tuesday evenings) which was encouraging. Considerations moving forward were around ensuring players arrived on time for matches, and ideally, from a player availability point of view Sundays was perhaps a better option for the League to be held to match up with Hatters players availability, all accepting that hall space was a deciding factor here currently.
SN was aware that some players had come to the League as it was free, see more below*
RB indicated that Caribbeans players would be keen to join this League and SN said he would look to explore how they could be accommodated.
>HN and ES explained that the adult tapeball league was held on Sunday afternoons over a 4 hour period at Stockwood Park Academy. It currently had 8 teams x6 a side and was playing friendlies. ES had been supporting HN with operating set up including covering umpiring. Batters in pairs have 4 over innings, -5 if out. Innings last 12 overs and also have power plays, inc. penalty runs linking into expectations of teams arriving 10 minutes before their scheduled start times to ensure the toss is done early. Players register to ensure transparency with side representation. 3 sides Friends United, Panthers and Stallions also play in the commercial league in the town: Big Bash. It had 2 Sri Lankan teams Newest & Lankistan and an Indian side Stockwood Park Ganesh which was particularly encouraging. Unfortunately, due to exam set up at the site, the hall was going to be unavailable for the next 3 weeks. This was also being experienced in other town programmes using educational settings.
>RB reported he was involved in Wicketz activities during the week and that last Friday had seen the start of the u14/15 activities, which hoped to eventually evolve into a league format. Currently there was in the region of 13 youngsters attending an u12 session and then a similar number attending an u15 session each for an hour and a half. 3 sides had been shaped so far in each age group: Rising Stars, Luton T&I and Caribbean’s.
RB reported that in terms of O50,s Seniors consideration there has been interest from Luton T&I, Lutonians and Caribbeans but that he was still striving to get a location for what was hoped to be a Sunday morning activity.
Other matters covered:
It was important to remember the priority for playing in these funded activities on offer remained for those, in the main, from the Luton area.
It was noted that Lutonians CC were looking to start in due course their traditional ‘in club’ Sunday League potentially at Ashcroft High School.
DS wished to record his thanks to Team Beds & Luton for their help in securing significant financial support from Sport England enabling winter activities, post Covid, to take place again supporting health and well/community integration points of view.
DS added that in the coming months it would need to consider utilising www.play-cricket.com in supporting wider documenting of match activity that would then be captured nationally. Match activity could be captured using phones once any League was registered, it would the need fixtures placing on the system, teams and squads creating. He looked to anyone present to consider exploring this as an option.
*DS wished those present to pass on the message to players currently involved that sustainability of these types of activities in the future would only be possible if consideration and awareness could be raised that local funding/sponsorship needed considering. Core City funding, at the time of writing, was still unclear and that it couldn’t and shouldn’t be relied upon as the game in Luton had already done very well from ECB funding support over the last 3-4 years. It should not be seen as a continuing ‘cash cow’, those involved locally in the game held the key to this in terms of taking on wider responsibility to champion the future……..
DS remained positive that the leagues could continue into the new year, he offered out for something to think about: would it help in time to merge/streamline adult Leagues to give wider playing opportunities involving more than one venue? On the other hand, did the nature of the game offer something different that communities were particularly still looking for, including using a different type of ball?
Finally, DS indicated that when the leagues structures had taken a bit more shape, there was likely to be the need to consider a constitution, along with organisational and financial operations to support activity along with the appointment of local officials positions to bring things in line with other Leagues running and supporting the game in the town.
He thanked everyone again for their enthusiasm/support to date and attending tonight. Everyone present agreed all the meeting purposes originally outlined at the start had been captured to show progress to date and indeed the significant opportunities for cross faith integration/engagement to develop further through playing the game.
This document would be used as part of the evidence trail in this regard with the ECB.
Dave Summers Nov 2021