On Monday 26th of February Oxfordshire Cricket welcomed clubs, schools, volunteers, local authorities, councillors and associations to the Cricket Development Evening at St Edward’s School in Oxford.
The Cricket Development Evening is an annual event that aims to help support the development of cricket in the county. The event also provides a great opportunity to network and engage with members of the Oxfordshire Cricket workforce, the ECB and partners. Local authority officers and executive members with responsibility for sport and playing pitch strategies were also in attendance with the purpose of networking and developing better relationships with clubs.
There was a range of partners and suppliers in attendance which included Serious Cricket, the Officials Association, Flicx Pitches, Delivita Clubhouse project and others.
This year saw just over 120 people attend the evening, which saw Leshia Hawkins – ECB Managing Director for the Recreational Game give a keynote address where she discussed the health of cricket, the impact of Inspiring Generations and the changing landscape of cricket.
Attendees of the event had the option to select two workshops to attend out of five. The workshops consisted of:
- Facilities, Grants and Funding – which was delivered by Neil Higginson (ECB) and Keith Cowley (Oxfordshire Cricket).
- Play-Cricket – Chris Seal, Tom Parry and Zac Hay (ECB) – This workshop gave an overview of Play-Cricket. It provided an opportunity to get new people on board and set up to play cricket while then showing them how to access matches, add team sheets in advance up until opening up the matches to score.
- Volunteer Recruitment – Esther Jones-Russell (ECB) This workshop looked at ways to engage and capture a new generation of volunteers through launching a Young Leaders Programme
- Boundary Programme – Anti Discrimination Training – Steve Kirby and Liz Madra (ECB) – This workshop looked at the types of discrimination, how to manage complaints, how to report to the ECB and how the ECB can support.
- Cricket in Secondary Schools – Ed Wilson and Nick Holroyd (Oxfordshire Cricket) This workshop explored how we can create a strategy for school cricket and in particular secondary schools in the County. This included exploring what a programme can look like, how we can work together to get children transitioning to clubs, as well as work with the Oxfordshire Schools Cricket Association
Nick Pinhol, Operations Director at Oxfordshire Cricket said:
The annual Cricket Development Evening is a fantastic event that brings together the cricket community with the purpose of supporting the development of cricket in the county. It was great to welcome over 120 people that ranged from clubs, schools, volunteers, local authorities, councillors, partners and associations.
It was inspiring to hear Leshia Hawkins’ Keynote address, which included the changing landscape of cricket and her vision and ambitions going forward as Managing Director of Recreational Cricket at the ECB. This year’s event differed slightly from previous years, as some workshops provided a key consultation point as we look to develop a Young Leaders Programme in order to inspire a new generation of volunteers, as well as work towards the development of a secondary schools strategy for the county.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the workshop facilitators for delivering engaging and impactful workshops, everyone that attended as well as all the partners, stakeholders and suppliers for attending. Finally, a special thank you must go to St Edward’s School for hosting the Cricket Development Evening, and supporting the development of cricket in the county.