Community support to Clubs

Cricket clubs in Leicestershire and Rutland have collectively received over £500,000 in funding to support their survival during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leicestershire County Cricket Club’s Community Team have focussed efforts on protecting the network through this period and have kept recreational cricket clubs informed with all of the necessary support and guidance required and have worked hard to understand the challenges that clubs face at this difficult time for the game.

At a time when the team would ordinarily be piling a huge effort into promoting participation in the many varieties of the game, Andy Hibberd, Mark Barber and Dave Allen from the team were delivering a funding webinar to club officials to inform of the support available via the Government’s Business Rate Relief Grants, Sport England’s Emergency Fund and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Emergency Loan and Return to Cricket grant scheme. All the schemes aimed at supporting the fixed operating costs, while also encouraging clubs to pair back expenditure in any way they can, to protect their chances of survival.

To date, the total amount shared between 120 clubs in the region is £539,451.

45 clubs have accessed Government Business rate Grants and 23 clubs have received funds from Sport England.

“It's a staggering amount of money, and it's vital to keep the recreational game alive, without which, levels of interest in cricket would inevitably begin to fall off,” Mark Barber, Leicestershire CCC’s Head of Community Development, told a recent members' forum.

“Normally this is the time of year when clubs would be bringing in the most amount of money, whether that be through their bar, or hiring out facilities, money that's vital to sustain their activities throughout the rest of the year.

“That is obviously not happening, so we've been doing all we can to inform clubs about what funding is available and how to apply. The support made available from a number of agencies has exceeded expectation and provides some certainty and security to our cricket clubs through what is likely to be the most difficult period they will have faced.”

The support has been warmly received by clubs, Dale Hardy, Chair at Buckminster and Barrowby Cricket Club said "without this money we would have really struggled. The work of the team at LCCC has proved invaluable in signposting us to this funding. We are incredibly grateful for their continued support as we would not have known to look where they suggested." 

The recreational game is now in the “preparing to return” phase, with the ECB having last week confirmed that clubs could now resume coaching outdoors in small groups of up to six at a time.