Handbook on line 2012 - Forester Kent Cricket League - Uk.net

REPORTS
Kent Cricket Board
Growing the game! How
did England get to be
number one?
Some of the reason why is to do with our
clubs and their investment in the development
of talented players. We have an ongoing role
in sustaining this success and this means that
we need a dynamic and pro-active KCB clubs
network to support both club and player
development.
Lifestyles, cultural needs and aspirations are
changing and cricket needs to keep pace and
manage this change process! Many of you will
have taken part in the debate at clubs meetings
and on the KCB Players survey, about match
start times, cost of travel, regionalisation,
match formats and durations and family social
constraints.
ECB are aware of this and similar debates are
taking place around the other County Boards.
ECB have developed a new draft clubs strategy
which recognises the need to accommodate
cultural and social changes and this should be
published later in 2012.
The challenges include:-
• Better playing surfaces
• Better facilities to encourage family involvement
• Encouraging more adult participation,
• The opportunity for shorter format matches,
• Retention of players as their family
circumstances change,
• More clubs playing indoor leagues,
• Reducing the cost of playing and organising
matches,
• More flexibility for start times,
• Running clubs as businesses
• Integrating clubs into their communities
• Softball social cricket
Following the publication of the ECB Clubs
Strategy the KCB will need to translate the
messages for delivering the future of cricket here
and produce our own plans to meet our own
needs.
We will seek your contributions to the debate
and one of the ways this might happen is to have
a dynamic KCB Clubs Committee with good twoway
communication.
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The current Clubs Committee representation
evolved from the Association of Kent Cricket
Clubs District model which then became aligned
with local government boundaries.
Does this organisation still meet the needs for
supporting our clubs base and developing the
game? Clubs Committee meetings attendance
suggests not! How can we make representation
better?
Are there better ways to exchange and share
ideas, sustain our clubs and grow the game?
What Does the KCB do for
You - A Success Story!
Towards the end of 2011 ECB advised us that the
contribution they had made to the development
of Kent Clubs through grants over the life of the
current plan had been about £900,000.
We thought about this and came up with an
assertion, based on our experience of working
with, advising and supporting clubs of all shapes
and sizes on their development plans and projects
and, that support from the National governing
body was likely to be about 25% of the total
investment. So, if this theory was right, there
should be about £3.6m of investment in cricket’s
capital infrastructure out there?
So we set about some fact finding, tracking known
projects and collecting all the information on a
spreadsheet. To date we’ve identified just over
£3m of known investment and we are confident
that our guesstimate is about right! If you know
of projects that we haven’t recognised give KCB
a call.
And the above doesn’t include the £6.5 m
Folkestone CC development!!!
Success stories are still being reported!
In most cases our clubs have got after their
finance and funding themselves, often after
having a seed of an idea from shared news at our
Development Group meetings and using their
volunteer base – recession – what recession!!
This performance was characterised by one of
the Presenters at a 2011 Funding Fair: “Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
volunteers can change the world; indeed, it’s the
only thing that ever has”
Kent Cricket Board
Praising Young Leaders
Jo Johnson MP attended the Young Leaders in
Cricket Awards on Sunday 16 October at Lords.
The programme is run by the Bromley District
Development Group, with support from the
Mayor’s Legacy Fund, the Kent Cricket Board and
the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Nearly 100 Young Leaders in Bromley have
participated in the Young Leaders programme,
helping them gain the skills and competencies
to volunteer within cricket and become role
models for others within the cricket and local
communities.
At the event, Jo said that he was delighted to
be there, “both as an avid cricket fan – and as a
firm believer that we, as parents, teachers and
community leaders, need to do more to get
young people to switch off the TV and the Xbox
and instead engage in sport and outdoor activities
with their peers.
The summer’s troubles highlighted the dangers
of ignoring a bored and bewildered youth and
will help not only hone the participants batting
techniques, but also foster essential skills in
leadership, teamwork, volunteering, and even first
aid.”
OD CUACO Cricket Club
and their net project
The project was to replace and install a new Non
Turf, 3 bay net facility at a cost of approximately
£43,000.
OD CUACO has over 90 junior and 120 adult
playing members. They currently run 7 youth
teams from Under 9 to Under 16 as well as 7
adult teams. The Club knew that it they were
to continue to provide a quality experience to
those who wanted to be involved in cricket, they
needed to be able to provide quality practice
facilities.
In order to continue to engage young people as
well as meeting the Club’s aim of increasing grass
roots development of cricket in the community,
the club needed to be able to provide a safe
environment, fit for purpose, in which everyone
can fulfil their potential.
OD CUACO are committed to bringing greater
numbers of young people to the sport and
continuing to minimise the rate of drop-out once
players get to the the age of 16.
For the past few seasons OD CUACO had been
working towards Clubmark Accreditation which
was achieved in 2009. In the same year they were
also awarded Focus Club status by Kent Cricket
Board.
Briefly the project cost £40,000 with the Club
supplying 25% and ECB the balance.
Old Wilsonians’ CC
Outdoor Net Opening
Friday 29th July 2011 saw the long awaited official
opening of the Old Wilsonians’ Cricket Club new
outdoor nets.
Rob Key, Kent County Cricket Club’s skipper,
accompanied Bob Bevan and performed the
official opening which was attended by 70 club
members, Mark Hansford (net contractor),
Councillor Anne Manning and Ken Slater
(Bromley District Development Manager).
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REPORTS