Everyone at Berkshire Cricket shows their continuous support with making cricket a game for everyone. We run disability cricket across the whole calendar year to ensure that everyone can have the opportunity to express their love for the sport. Our Disability Officer, Chris Baker runs cricket sessions that are aimed for those with underlying disabilities as well as physical difficulties and we have seen how much joy can be brought from allowing disabled children the opportunity to experience cricket. Therefore, we encourage you, your cricket club to have a think about starting up a disability squad that is accessible for those in need.
Therefore, we would strongly encourage your cricket club to think about becoming an ECB Disability Champion Club. By becoming a Disability Champion Club, you will receive support from the ECB as well as Berkshire Cricket. Each club signing up to become a Champion Club will receive £500, a kit bag and plenty of resources to help you get started. We currently have 3 Champion Clubs in Berkshire and would love to expand this further. These clubs are Slough CC, Falkland CC and Holyport CC.
We understand that starting disability provision within your club can be a daunting prospect. Especially if those at the club have little to no experience of delivering to people with disabilities. Our current Champion Clubs were once in the same position but through trial and error they now have a thriving disability offer at their club. Keeping things simple and being willing to adapt will help you run fun and engaging sessions.
Some of the health benefits that sport can have are:
- Can develop their social and interactive skills
- Can help participants develop friendships, self confidence and interpersonal skills
- Health benefits such as improving stamina, increased cardiovascular endurance and balance,
These are just a few of the health benefits that can be associated with physical activity and we believe that cricket can be a fantastic platform for those to start getting active if they aren’t already.
If you would like to seek any help and advice about how to start up a disability squad, please do get in contact with out clubs communications manager, Tom Jackson and our disability officer Chris Baker who would be more than happy to help answer your questions.