Sean Jarvis: CEO Monthly Report - November 2022

I was completely wrong! Me thinking November would be a quiet month for Leicestershire “ big mistake!

The month just gone has possibly been as busy, if not busier than the height of the summer with so much work going on (especially behind the scenes).

Firstly, I will start with our Community Pillar.

I recently attended a business event (during the brilliant Leicester Business Festival) and the hot topic was ‘Women and Girls Cricket’. It was great to discuss the boom in the game and what’s also really encouraging to hear is that there is now potentially three new Leicestershire clubs joining the East Midlands Women’s Cricket League (Loughborough, Enderby and Uppingham). In my short spell as CEO, I have witnessed a special boom in the Women and Girls game “ long may it continue.

What is also really pleasing to see is that the Community team are hiring a Community Talent Champion (CTC) for women’s cricket. I know that the CTC’s recruited for the men’s game has been very successful and we have witnessed players entering our pathway. I look forward to seeing how it evolves.

The Chance to Shine programme is also now well underway and already we have seen over 1000 participants get involved.

Winter is often described as awards season, and we were no different with our ‘Grassroots Cricket Awards’. It was a great turnout in the Morningside Marquee and individuals including coaches, officials, club administrators and grounds people were those receiving the recognition. They deserved their moment in the spotlight “ well done to all involved.

Continuing with awards, it was great to see the Club receive thee shortlistings and one winner in the recent Chance to Shine awards. Congrats to the Community team for their work on the Rushey Mead Street Project, Vishal Mistry for being shortlisted as Schools Coach of the Year, and finally well done to our winner Aamina Vhora for becoming the Street Coach of the Year.

‘Disability Cricket’ has been high on our agenda, and I am glad to say we have begun the process as Ashleigh Passant has joined us as the Disability Cricket Development Officer and is aiming to grow Table Cricket and Super 1’s to mention just a couple of areas. I am really looking forward to seeing how this develops for us.

The Company Pillar was equally busy. I mentioned last month a long list of works that we need to undertake at the Uptonsteel County Ground. Dan Archer (our Stadium Manager) with his team has begun the process and hopefully when you return to the ground in April 2023 (if not sooner), you will notice some of the positive changes we have made.

With regards to staffing we held a training day at the Club recently (followed by a night out 10-pin Bowling “ the less said of my performance, the better!). It was great to see staff engaged in ensuring we continue to move forward as a business.

Lots of topics were covered including, ‘Safeguarding’, ‘Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion’, ‘GDPR’, ‘Safety’ as well as creating a ‘Vision and Mission’ for us to achieve.  It’s often the infrastructure of a business that can get neglected but our aim must try and build robust internal procedures. It was clear the staff at the Club are working collectively to achieve that.

Communications is our newest Pillar and in the short time Amy Reed (Head of Communications) has joined us, she is starting to make an impact and look at how we continue to improve our dialogue with our supporters old and new. It is still early days but there are some exciting plans emerging.

One such plan is the development of Foxes TV. The Communications team are keen to build this channel and we should start seeing some further changes in the New Year. If you feel you are missing out, I urge you to contact the Club and ensure you are on the database. Our website is high on the agenda also, as one of our key channels, and I know the team are introducing some new features to try and improve the experience. As I say, there’s lots of things planned and hopefully you will see how we improve our direct communication to you.

Commercially, the close season is a critical period for the Club and the Commercial Pillar have hit the ground running. Already we have seen sales for the first month of our new financial year at 11.4% ahead of budget and 55.3% ahead of the same period last year. Without this growth, the Club will simply struggle to survive. It’s a great start to the financial year and the Commercial Pillar should be congratulated.

Hopefully by now you will have received a membership pack (if not please call into the new Club shop or drop us a line). We did delay releasing the details due to ensuring we had a couple of glitches ironed out. The reaction, however, to our membership launch has been really encouraging and we are close to being at 30% of our target already.

The ‘Moments That Matter’ campaign has been well received as not only we look to celebrate our previous achievements but also create some new ones for our supporters. There are lots of options, from free Junior Membership to enjoying watching cricket in the luxury of the David Gower Suite. Membership of the Club is the lifeblood, so please help us spread the word and build our fanbase. Last year we saw a great increase (particularly the junior members “ which is great for the future) but we need more and more of you. Together we are stronger and if we continue to build our numbers, we will be stronger again.  

As I am sure you have seen, we had some excellent news in the Cricket Pillar, as we learnt that Rehan Ahmed had been called up to the England Squad. At Leicestershire, we have a tradition of producing players for the national team and we are extremely proud that Rehan has broken into the setup. We of course wish him every success and will be watching his progress closely.

Meanwhile our team have been working very hard behind the scenes on both fitness and technique. I’ve seen the training schedule in the new players’ lounge, and it looks daunting. However, chatting to them they really seem to be enjoying the hard work and already looking forward to the new season.

I mentioned in the last update about how we have changed the coaching set up and brought in some dedicated expertise, it also feels now we are creating a team that can deliver some success. We have some great new arrivals in Sol Budinger and Matt Salisbury, combined with emerging talent such as Josh Hull, but also established players such as Colin Ackerman, Chris Wright, Callum Parkinson, and Lewis Hill to name just a few. Then you add into the mix the overseas players and with one announced in Wiaan Mulder, the balance of the team is beginning to take shape.  This ‘cocktail’ of players looks really encouraging and am sure to give us some of those new moments we all crave.

I mentioned awards earlier and or Cricket Pillar has also picked up a deserved award. Our head grounds person, Andy Ward and his team were joint winners in the recent ECB grounds awards, picking up silverware for the Four-Day pitch category.  

Finally, our Cash Pillar, as mentioned commercial sales are critical for us at this stage. Encouragingly, however in the first month we are ahead of budget. There is clearly a very long way to go but we are off to a good opening stand.

That’s it for me this month, but I would urge you to support your Club and help us to build on the great foundations we are laying.

Onwards and upwards,

Sean.