Former club President, David Bowden presented with MBE

David Bowden, Past President of Sussex Cricket, was invested with his MBE for services to cricket and the community in Sussex on Monday 6th December 2021.

The award was announced in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2020 and presented to him by the Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, Andrew Blackman in the Mayor’s Parlour at Brighton Town Hall. 

It is rare for someone in cricket to be recognised in this way and David stated that he felt he was doing so on behalf of the whole Sussex cricket family and the thousands of volunteers in the county who give such amazing commitment to their clubs and organisations.  He also thanked his wife, Pauline, and his family for their support in his various activities, both within the game and in other charitable settings.

David, 81, has given a huge amount to the game since retiring from a distinguished career in healthcare management. In 2000, David became Chairman of Preston Nomads CC, the club he had previously captained for many years in the Sussex Premier League. 

Following the death of Spen Cama in 2001, David was deeply involved in the creation of the Spen Cama Cricket Foundation and was a trustee and Honorary Secretary of the Foundation until December 2020.

In 2006, David was elected as a Board Director of Sussex County Cricket Club, during which time he was responsible for the merger of the Sussex Cricket Board and Sussex County Cricket Club into a signle entity named Sussex Cricket Limited. He retired from the Board in March 2015, following which he was elected President of Sussex Cricket for a two-year period of office from 2015 to 2017.

During the past 17 years, David has been involved in numerous charitable fundraising activities for the Sussex Young Cricketers’ Educational Trust, its successor charity, Sussex Cricket in the Community Trust and more recently the Sussex Cricket Foundation, during which time well over £600,000 has been raised for youth cricket in the county. During the same period, he has been Chair of the Greater Brighton Area Cricket Hub and its predecessor organisation, which has recently produced its Urban Plan for Cricket in Greater Brighton.

David is now Chair of the Cricket Committee at the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA), which is Sussex Cricket’s state school of choice for any aspiring young cricketers in the county. He is also President of the Sussex Cricket Society and also helps in the running of the weekly sessions of Sussex Cricket’s Sporting Memories programme in Hove.