Warwickshire Cricket Board have joined Levelling the Playing Field as a Local Delivery Partner – and their projects targeting specific communities are set to enrich our evidence base.

Warwickshire launched the ACE Programme when lockdown restrictions eased in early April. The initiative aims to reignite the cricketing passion of the Afro Caribbean community, which has seen a huge drop-off in participation over the last few decades.

Cricket Development Manager (Community), Eaton Gordon, leads a group of coaches running sessions in schools in north-west Birmingham, with participants given opportunities to further their development at nearby Handsworth Cricket Club and Holford Drive Community Sports Hub. 

“There has been a large drop in interest and engagement in the game within the black community in recent years and we have probably missed a generation of young people as a result,” said Eaton. “However, we have the ability to make a change and we are starting this programme with a blank sheet of paper and intend to break down any barriers that may have affected participation in the game.”

Alongside this, the club supports the England and Wales Cricket Board’s South Asian Action Plan which aims to create opportunities and remove barriers to England’s South Asian population engaging in the sport.

South Asia is, of course, cricket’s heartland, and children from those backgrounds make up the majority of participants in Warwickshire’s various street projects. “South-Asian kids really love cricket. The project is about making it as accessible as possible for them and maintaining that passion as their game develops,” says Eaton.

Working with specific communities in targeted programmes will add an interesting perspective to the research into ‘best practice’ in engaging children from underserved, ethnically diverse communities through the power of sport, which is being conducted by Levelling the Playing Field’s team based at the University of Birmingham.

Warwickshire Cricket Board achieves its aims in the community through ‘street cricket’ initiatives. The club’s pool of 14 coaches firstly conduct ‘old-fashioned’ outreach work, hitting the streets in culturally diverse areas to talk to kids and get them to come along.

The sessions are “essentially cricket’s version of five-a-side football” explains Eaton. “We speak to kids about their backgrounds, what they’re doing in life, and just run simple 20-ball-per-innings games, with each bowler delivering four balls each, and see how far they can whack it. Over time, their cricket skills develop and there are clear pathways for them to move on to hard-ball cricket with local clubs and then perhaps have trials at county level."

“We’ve got an affinity with the young people in our area,” says Eaton. “We want to see them progress, improve their wellbeing and keep them away from things that aren’t right for them.

“Anything to do with improving youngsters’ lives, making them better citizens and people through the avenue of cricket is something we’ll always be interested in, no matter what format that comes in. That’s why joining Levelling the Playing Field is a no-brainer.

“As a community coaching team, we all believe passionately in what we do. Whatever we can do to benefit the lives of our young people, we will try to be a part of it.”

At the time of writing, the specific sessions that will be dedicated to Levelling the Playing Field haven’t been selected, but Warwickshire CCC have 13 projects dotted across Birmingham and seven in Coventry to choose from.

Some street cricket projects in Coventry are attended by a hugely diverse range of participants including those from Somali, Yemeni and Eastern European backgrounds. When restrictions allow, Eaton will look to resume the Crime Awareness Programme that he ran before Covid-19 alongside TSA Projects and the Chance to Shine charity.

The programme uses cricket to engage youngsters at-risk of exclusion from school and open up honest discussions with them about anti-social behaviour, gangs, county lines, social media, healthy relationships and wellbeing. The lived experience of TSA Projects founder, Tanayah Sam, proves powerful when set alongside the ‘hook’ of cricket. Adapted rules to games of cricket help reinforce the central messages about crime: for example, if one person is out, the whole team’s innings ends, which demonstrates the concept of joint enterprise in gang crime.

Eaton states: “In cricket, you have to think for yourself but your actions have direct consequences for your team. In that respect, I think it’s the best sport for teaching crucial life skills."

Read more about the work of Warwickshire Cricket Board on their website and follow them on Twitter.