CEO update – August 2024

Hi all,

I hope you’ve all been enjoying the summer and ready to reimmerse yourself into routines as we enter September.

As I’m sure you’re aware, the school summer holidays is a time where our weekly programme activity across the country comes to temporary halt. To replace that weekly engagement, throughout the summer months we deliver some more regionalised festivals and residentials that provide participants with incredible life experiences and personal development opportunities that help to set them up for the future.

I touched on our Super 1s residentials in my previous monthly message and this month we saw the return of our combined Super 1s and Wicketz residential at Arundel Castle in conjunction with the Arundel Castle Cricket Foundation. Participants from Luton Wicketz and Sussex Super 1s came together to gain an improved understanding of what they each experience in their daily lives while getting to know each other through cricket. The two days give participants the opportunity to spend time away from home in a different environment, engage in physical activities that they may not have otherwise experienced and take on challenges that they never have before. It gave opportunities for some Wicketz participants to coach young people with a disability, and Super 1s participants to take a leadership role in some activities as well. Taking on new experiences like this, ensures participants and their parents leave the two days away from home, with increased levels of belief and confidence in what they can achieve, these are our key aims because we know the positive impact this can have on young people.

Our Development Officers across our Super 1s and Wicketz programmes have been very busy organising and delivering other local festivals, bringing participants from different parts of the country together to learn vital life skills together while meeting and getting to know young people from different communities and parts of the country. Some have provided young people with the unique chance to play cricket at county cricket grounds, others have been at the beach or activity centres, but all have offered a valuable experience that will have contributed to all participants and their families feeling very positively about their prospects.  

Integral to the delivery of our Wicketz festivals this summer has been funding from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). A huge thank you to them for their support and opening up this opportunity for so many young people that make such a positive difference. To find out more about all the festivals that have taken place this summer please visit all of our social media channels for images and videos that highlight the impact thanks to your support of our work.

In a bit of a first for us and our Cricket Kit Recycling programme, in August one of the team travelled as a guest of the city to Brampton (near Toronto) to oversee the donation of almost 120kg of cricket kit to help them break the barriers that young people face when it comes to not being able to play the sport due to a lack of kit or equipment. The popularity of cricket is fast growing in the area and they have been working with the ECB alongside other international cricket organisations to develop their cricket offer and we have now signed a memorandum of understanding that will see us continue to send much needed cricket kit their way to help them advance youth cricket opportunities in the region, in return we will see opportunities for our staff and young people to travel there and support the growth of this work. This is just a small snapshot of the impact our Cricket Kit Recycling programme can have both at home and abroad. If you have any cricket kit you’d like to donate once the 2024 season has finished, please get in touch!

Our Taverners XI has been enjoying a very busy fixture list up and down the country with some great support and fundraising success along the way. Thank you to all our players helping to spread the word of the charity in every fixture we play, and to everyone reading this who has attended a game and shown their support, including by helping to host or organise events. There are still a few games to go so make sure you head to one of our remaining fixtures if you can.

We’re soon to enter the last quarter of the year and we kick that off on the events front with a tribute to our President and England great David Gower. Tickets are still available for the lunch at Lord’s on 17 September so make sure you book your place if you haven’t already, it promises to be a fun packed, and celebrity and cricket VIP studded event. There are numerous fundraising events being organised by our central team and regional volunteers across the UK for the remainder of the year, so do visit our website to keep up to date with the latest event offerings and see which events you can attend near you to support the cause, meet up with friends and enjoy socialising whilst playing your part in impacting young people’s lives so positively.

I look forward to seeing you at programme activity or an event near you very soon.

Best wishes,
Mark