Leicestershire Monthly Report - April 2021

Our evolution is continuing..

For this, the April edition of my monthly updates, now that the season has begun, I want to reflect on where we are as a Club for 2021. In summary, there has been some excellent close season hard work put into the #runningfoxes to ensure we continue to come through the pandemic, but we must not rest on our laurels or think that we can now relax. In fact, far from it, the ‘evolution’ of the new breed has simply just begun and we must continue with our brilliant, ‘pushing the boundaries’, work ethic.

To begin this month’s review, I will start with Cricket.

It’s no denying that as a young developing team, the first three games of the 2021 LV= County Championship season were going to be a very tough challenge. However, whilst everyone of our lads knew of the uphill task, they were without exception, looking forward to pitting their wits against the best.

We may not have got the results we would have liked but I think I speak for all when I say that there were some very encouraging signs from performances that give us all hope. In the three games we have had, we have seen three personal bests with the bat. Hassan Azad, Harry Swindells and Sam Evans should all be congratulated for their efforts. It’s also great that two of those PB’s were from lads from our academy too.

A special mention should also be given here to Lewis Hill who achieved 4 (nearly 5) consecutive half-centuries in the six innings he has played in.

As mentioned we are all disappointed we didn’t get more points on the board but as they say, of small acorns do oak trees grow and I am certain our young team will continue to learn, evolve and become even stronger as the season progresses.

To that effect I would ask our brilliant supporters to continue to encourage our team to evolve. There are definitely exciting times ahead.

Unfortunately we have been hit with some injuries early on in season including Will Davis, who was bowling at the best we have seen him in pre-season; Ed Barnes who was penned to make his debut for us versus Somerset, and then Colin Ackerman who had to sit out the majority of the Somerset game as well as the full Gloucestershire fixture. We wish them a speedy recovery and return playing soon.

One thing that has been missing for our fixtures, is of course you, the fans. The Uptonsteel County Ground remains eerily quiet without you but we are fast approaching the Middlesex game on May 27, that should permit us to allow restricted numbers into the ground. Our Commercial team are currently working on this and will announce details soon. Members of course will be given priority to attend the matches.

Speaking of our Commercial, this is the next area I would like to focus on. We remain active in talking to sponsors and partners and I am delighted of the growing numbers. Here at Leicestershire we are wanting to create a business hub, where our brands can meet, create new contacts and of course enjoy the cricket. I am sure when you visit the ground you will notice some new companies that have joined forces with us. In fact I would encourage you to take a stroll down Partners Drive to see who our partners are (and of course support them where you can).

Last month I mentioned media partnerships and am delighted to say we have added our third in the past couple of weeks; namely Sabras Radio. This is a great partnership for us as it will help us reach audiences that maybe we have overlooked or found hard to communicate with in the past.

As well as trying to maximise revenues on matchdays we continue to explore how we can create revenue stream outside of the games also. As mentioned in previous month’s reports, it is our intention to try and make the Uptonsteel County Ground our county’s Premium Outdoor Venue.

The West End Queen show continues to sell well with only limited tickets now available but hopefully you have seen the news that we are now holding a couple of outdoor cinema events including Toy Story and Mamma Mia! If you haven’t seen the news I would log on to our official website at www.leicestershireccc.co.uk to book your tickets.

As well as those things you see changing in both our cricket and commercial pillars, there are some things that are changing that you may not see. Behind the scenes, under our Company pillar it has always been our intention to evolve as a business with our policies and practices. Our Admin and Governance Manager is continuing to work on those including GDPR training and documentation for our staff. The pandemic gave us the opportunity to truly reflect on how we undertake such practices and we are now beginning to make some great strides on how we operate internally.

Ground wise we are of course busy preparing for the return of our supporters. This has been a huge project for us but do believe we are now ready and cant wait to have you back.

From a Community perspective, our big news has been the announcement of our next Foundation initiative, ‘Tour de Foxes’. Those that know me, will be aware that I was involved in a very successful series (10 of them) of charity bike rides with my former club, Huddersfield Town.

In simple they were brilliant and managed to raise over £2 million for its community. Having been involved and of course inspired by these I am wanting to bring a Leicestershire version, and with the help of our commercial and community teams we are launching our very own Charity Bike Ride.

This first one, due to the pandemic, will be based around Leicester and will be approximately 80 miles, taking in some of our countryside and local cricket clubs. I would urge you have a look, sign up, get sponsored and help us raise some very valuable funds for the LCCC Foundation which will support, Alex’s Wish and Healing Little Hearts.

What’s also great to see is our community team now beginning to get out there and over the summer I have promised to go and see them all in action, starting with a visit to Cropston Cricket Club where our Women’s and Girl’s teams will be training. I personally am really looking forward to seeing as many clubs and venues as I can. On that note I want to say a massive thanks to Kibworth, Rothley and Newtown Linford (at the time of writing) for hosting our Academy teams in pre season warm ups.

Finally onto Cash, or in other words our financial position. We cant hide from the fact that it remains tough and we must continue to appeal to you, our supporters to back us where you can. However there are some encouraging signs for us as a Club, for example we are 7% ahead of budget for our commercial partnerships and 26% ahead of budget for advertising, but also at the same time keeping our costs under control by being 15% under budget.

For us at the moment it feels as if we have done as much as we can off the field to date and we just now need you our supporters to return and support your club. Hopefully this will be sooner rather than later.

Thats it for this month but hopefully by the time I write next months report I will have met some of you in person

Come on you #runningfoxes!