When England Cricket Club won the World Cup for the first time last summer, there was hope that it would inspire a new generation of players to take up the sport. But with decreasing council sports budgets limiting the expansion of more cricket pitches, has England’s win been for nothing?
London Fields Cricket Club captain Troy Utz, whose club trains at Hackney Marshes, thinks that more needs to be done to ensure that people can join the club, as it has had to turn some away due to a lack of space to accommodate them.
“We had to turn potential members away”
“Although there has definitely been more interest in cricket – I’ve had triple the interest in joining than what I had last year – we have had to turn potential members away.
“The pressure to secure council pitches is greater than ever and I have seen a marked increase in people and teams looking to play in Hackney,” Utz said.
Competition is fierce for pitches in the borough, with rival clubs like Stoke Newington Cricket Club and other sports like football and rugby also using the marshes for training and competitions.
“My feeling is that the council could supply some more grass wickets at Hackney Marshes to accommodate this increase,” Utz added.
£17.1 million project
After London 2012, Hackney received Olympic legacy money for “Remaking the Marshes”, a £17.1 million project that renewed facilities to be fit for purpose in the 21st century. Although Utz acknowledged that the money had “regenerated the marshes with cricket facilities” he said that it is “a vast area that could accommodate more grass pitches” for the sport.
But Hackney is not the only borough struggling to accommodate an increased demand for the sport.
Camden struggling too
In Camden, cricket club chairman Nick Brown, of Hampstead Cricket Club said: “I do think that amateur sports clubs take on most of the responsibility for ‘grass roots’ sports, especially cricket, where there is generally a cost associated with this for the parents, such as coaches, kit, pitch bookings which are not free.
“At Hampstead, we are aware of our social responsibility and do our best to ensure children wanting to play cricket, get the opportunity to do so, but there are commercial limits that we have to work within.”
Accessibility issues
With accessibility issues between those who cannot afford the best equipment and coaches versus those who can, the lack of public pitches is only adding to the pressure that cricket already faces.
In December, 40 sports industry leaders from across the United Kingdom signed an open letter to government on a wide range of issues including the lack of state funding to sport departments in schools, poor school facilities and PE lessons being cut in school curriculums in favour of more ‘academic’ subjects to meet national targets.
Cuts bite
The petition stated that some children are not being introduced to as wide a variety of sports at school as they were before due to the cuts made.
With the Women’s T20 World Cup just concluded and the next generation of young players that this will inevitably inspire, more needs to be done collaboratively by council and local cricket clubs to ensure that England’s World Cup legacy is one that lasts.
