With the end of the 2023 cricket season just over 100 days and the start of the 2024 season just over 100 days away, I wanted to offer our thanks to all those who make cricket happen clubs, teams, communities, and schools – this year has again seen a huge amount of activity across the County with more children and young people than ever accessing our great sport.
2023 saw Berkshire Cricket successful on the field with trophies for our Men’s 1st Team (NCCA 50 over Trophy) and our Boys Under 18 Team (ECB T20 Cup) as well as our Reading Under 16 MCC Foundation Hub team experiencing an amazing day playing at Lords where they won the National Under 16 Trophy. Along with our boy’s Emerging Player Programme which has seen many young cricketers progress onto First Class Cricket Academies in the last few years, we again funded an ‘Extra Provision Group’ for our most talented and promising female cricketers which has seen several move into the Southern Vipers regional system.
Off the field saw our support to Clubs increase with the investment of just over £100,000 in developing and improving facilities through the ECB County Grant Fund, nearly £16,000 invested in Coach Development bursaries for underrepresented groups, and the further rollout of our Disability Hubs and SEND Schools programme in partnership with The Lords Taverners.
We also grew our Community offer, with 240 young people benefitting from the free cricket training and matchplay through the MCC Foundation Hubs, the creation of two new community cricket hubs in Reading as part of our wider plan to make Cricket more relevant within the town, and we saw over 400 children, mostly who are in receipt of free school meals, take part in the free All Stars and Dynamos programmes across the County in the Summer holidays.
We relaunched the ‘Berkshire Cricket’ brand towards the end of the season, showing the fully integrated and single body for cricket within the County, and supporting our aim to get More People, in More Places, doing More Cricket.
You can help us to achieve this aim by becoming a Friend of Berkshire Cricket – your support will help us to continue to provide high quality, accessible and purposeful programmes, and allow us to continue to grow the range of opportunities available across Berkshire.