Development of Excellence

Building is due to begin on the Loughborough-based National Academy indoor cricket centre in November, subject to lottery endorsement and planning permission. The centre will not only be one of the largest indoor cricket schools in the world but also amongst the most high-tech. The six indoor lanes will be able to accommodate a fast bowler's full run-up while also allowing the wicket-keeper space to take the deliveries standing back behind the stumps. The lanes will be built to simulate different pitch surfaces and state-of-the-art analysis systems will be installed to provide vital technical data for training purposes.

The National Academy's outdoor nets will also be of the best quality possible. The two blocks of five lanes each will be enclosed in a caged area for security with a communal 30-yard run-up to accommodate fast bowlers' requirements. One lane in each net, meanwhile, will be dressed with lighter soil to make the wicket more conducive to spin bowling.

England Under-15s will play three matches this summer, against Scotland U17, Holland U17 and Guyana U17. The ECB has appointed its National Coach, David Parsons, as the new England U15 team coach this season. Paul Farbrace, whom Parsons replaces, takes over as England U17 team coach.

Increased funding from the Brian Johnston Memorial Trust means that three young leg-spinners, instead of two, will be sent to train with Terry Jenner in Adelaide in October. Jenner is back working with the best 25 young leg-spinners in the country in late July and August. The lucky 25, who have been selected from a pool of 140, will attend a four-day training session in Taunton from Monday 12th August, where they will take part in 50-over matches against each other, in which leg-spin will be the only bowling style on show! The most promising three spinners will then be invited to go to Australia for two weeks' intensive coaching with Jenner in his home town.

The ECB Coaches Association (ECB CA) continues to grow. Established at the beginning of the year and replacing the Association of Cricket Coaches (ACC) as the single organisation responsible for the support and development of coaches at all levels, there are currently 5,500 ECB CA members. In total there are 26,500 ECB-recognised qualified coaches in the UK (i.e. those who have completed ECB-recognised courses) and as many as possible are encouraged to apply for ECB CA membership, with increased support on offer in the shape of a new membership pack, a coaches performance diary and mailings of the regular coaches newsletter 'Hitting the Seam'.

Development

The ECB has recently employed its first-ever Child Protection Consultant, Vicky Bailey, on a two-days-a-week consultancy basis. The early priorities of her work will include a review of the existing Child Protection Policy document and guidance book for clubs, allied to a supporting training and education programme. Vicky, who has extensive experience in this role, will also be in contact with external agencies such as the Child Protection for Sport Unit and the Criminal Records Bureau.

Wilson Stuart School from Birmingham has won the Lord's Taverners National Table Cricket Final for the third time in four years. The final, which took place at the Indoor School at Lord's on Tuesday 2 July, was attended by ten teams which had won their way to Lord's via ten regional competitions involving a total of 37 teams. Table cricket has never been better funded: this was the inaugural year of sponsorship from the Lord's Taverners, which has put in £54,000 to develop the game over the next three years. Abbey National also supported the Final to the tune of £10,000, and the Cargo Charities Fund has donated £2,000 worth of equipment.

Sport England's Active Sport programme is producing real benefits for grass-roots cricket - aiding the development of cricket clubs, coaches and talented young players and also funding the delivery of District Cricket. Year one funding, for the five-year scheme, has already totalled over £600,000 with Sport England and The Cricket Foundation the key benefactors. The programme will eventually be delivered through 45 Partnerships throughout the country - 30 are currently active.

The ECB web-site for recreational cricket, www.play-cricket.com , continues to attract clubs and leagues into making an ever-larger on-line grass roots community. There are now 991 clubs and 115 leagues which have web-sites on the system.

The ECB Development Department has initiated a pilot schools development programme called 'Dads and Lads'. This programme, fully funded by government resources, stems from a recognition by the government that boys' literacy levels at Year 7 need to be improved and the ECB's desire for cricket to be introduced to young boys (particularly in disadvantaged areas).

The 'Dads and Lads' scheme encourages Dads to play cricket with their Lads whilst at the same time improving their reading and writing skills. The partnership between father and son is crucial. The 'Lad' takes home a set of cricket equipment and a pack of cricket skill and literacy cards, both provided by the school, which enable the 'Dad' to play cricket with his 'Lad' and also work on his education at home after school.

The scheme was started in 2001 in 11 schools (10 'Lads' in each school) in the inner city areas of Burnley, Nelson and Colne in East Lancashire and was widened to include schools in the deprived Skelmesdale district of Merseyside in 2002. If deemed successful, the programme may be expanded further next year.

The ECB, as part of its strategy of working closer with recreational cricket clubs, is to develop a 'Guide to developing your junior section'. The pack of eight cards will deal with subjects such as: recruiting children, creating a safe club, sources of Grant Aid and equipment for junior cricket, creating a women's and girls' section and cricket for people with disabilities. The new resource will be made available for all 6,600 affiliated clubs by the end of July.

Advertisements are now out to recruit a National Volunteer Manager to implement the ECB's National Volunteer Strategy. The recruit will be based at Lord's with a brief to assist volunteering at all levels of the game, but it will be of particular benefit to recreational cricket which relies so heavily on input from volunteers. This is a further boost to the ECB's target of introducing 10,000 new volunteers to cricket by 2007. The National Volunteer Manager position is being funded by Sport England, which has received money specifically to boost volunteering as a result of the government's 'Sporting Future for All' strategy.

The ECB Cricket Roadshow, sponsored by Vodafone, is a 40ft foot articulated lorry which tours the country to promote cricket to boys and girls. Manned by a permanent crew of four staff and by regionally-based fully-qualified cricket development officers and coaches, the unit will visit 30 venues across the country this year, providing over 60 days of activity expected to attract over 20,000 children.

The star attraction on the Cricket Roadshow is a BBC Radio competition which offers the winner a chance to commentate on an England match for the BBC - in Australia! Budding young commentators, under the age of 17, will be able to create their own commentary tapes in a specially-designed BBC Radio booth which allows boys and girls to commentate on an over bowled by Darren Gough in the 1999 Cricket World Cup. Tapes can then be submitted to a BBC commentary panel, which, at the end of the season, will pick a winner to go to Test Matches in Melbourne and Sydney against Australia next winter and commentate during one of the games on BBC Radio. The winner's prize is for two adults and two children, and is donated courtesy of ECB's official travel operators Titan Travel and Malaysian Airlines.

Following the government's announcement of its £10m 'Sporting Playgrounds' initiative on 30 May 2002, the ECB, in conjunction with Highway Safety Systems, recently unveiled innovative new markings for school playgrounds at Highfield Primary School in Manchester.

The playground markings, devised by the ECB's Development Department and mainly for Primary School usage, will not only encourage boys and girls to play sport in their breaks but will help teachers deliver the school curriculum. Numbered targets will help with numeracy skills while the layout of the targets within the playground will facilitate more organised PE practice time.

In addition, the brightly coloured markings will allow matches and training for a multitude of sports, including cricket, football, netball and hockey so a wide-range of sporting tastes can be catered for. The concept of the markings has been based on the ECB's ground-breaking educational resource, called HOWZAT!.

The ECB and Highway Safety Systems, who will apply the markings, aim to encourage Local Education Authorities and Head Teachers throughout the country to adopt the markings as part of the government's £495m New Opportunities Fund scheme to develop sport facilities in schools. The cost of the playground markings will be between £2,000 and £20,000, depending on what options schools chose.

Commercial

ECB and Channel 4 beat 10 finalists to win the Marketing Society Award for 'Corporate Citizenship' at the Marketing Society Awards 2002 ceremony in London on 18 June. The award recognized two separate programmes: firstly, the ECB/C4 'Street Cricket Programme' which provides a sustainable cricket development programme to youngsters ages eight to 16 in housing estates in nine cities; and secondly Channel 4's development of a cricket ground in Kennington Park, South London. This award follows those recently won by npower, 'Best Sponsorship Exploitation' at the inaugural Sports Industry Awards, and Channel 4's BAFTA award.

Other

The ECB has been lobbying the government's 'Performance and Innovation Unit', part of the Cabinet Office, which is preparing a major report on the role government should play in developing sport. A number of meetings have taken place so far. The report is due out in September.

The ECB is considering an expansion of cricket's relationship with The Prince's Trust - the Prince of Wales's charity which helps disadvantaged young people make a success of their lives. A pilot twelve-week personal development course was successfully held at Surrey CCC's AMP Oval at the beginning of the year, and it is hoped that 'The Prince's Trust Cricket Initiative' will be linked to a number of other major county grounds in the future.

© ECB