More than 40 Sussex clubs attend All Stars Cricket roadshow

Sussex Cricket and the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) hosted an All Stars Cricket Roadshow at The 1st Central County Ground on Wednesday 22nd November.

All Stars Cricket is the trail-blazing initiative from the ECB aimed at providing kids aged five to eight with a great first experience in cricket.

Over 60 representatives from 43 cricket clubs across the county attended the event in the Focus Group Boundary Rooms.

These clubs were made up of both existing All Stars Cricket centres and clubs newly interested in the 2018 programme.

Head of Participation & Growth at Sussex Cricket, Roger Newman, opened the event by welcoming all clubs and thanking them for coming.

Joe Dale, the ECB’s Regional Youth Participation Executive for the South-Central Region, then took over and presented the evening.

During his presentation, the national and county-wide successes of the first year of All Stars Cricket were highlighted.

Representatives from Lindfield CC and Rustington CC then took part in a question and answer session that revealed how All Stars Cricket had benefited their clubs.

Five key new features that will benefit clubs, activators and participants in next year’s All Stars Cricket were presented on the evening:

• Doubled investment into national marketing and increased support for local marketing
• Improved club management system
• Enticing year two offer for clubs, activators and participants
• Improved support for activators
• Review of financial model

Finally, the ECB’s strategy for the Junior Participation Pathway in cricket was presented. Clubs listened to a brief overview of the research and studies that have been conducted over the last three years and were presented with the ‘Proposed Modified Formats – 2018 Pilot’.

It was explained how this would affect the junior leagues in Sussex and the cricketing pathway children take from their introduction to cricket onwards.

To end the evening, club representatives were given the chance to put questions to the Sussex Cricket Youth Participation Team in smaller groups. This allowed for some important local discussions to take place and for clubs to meet their 2018 All Stars Champions.

Sussex Cricket would like to thank those that attended for their enthusiasm. Any clubs wanting further information or support on running an All Stars Cricket course in 2018 can get in touch via all.starscricket@sussexcricket.co.uk. Those wishing to register their club, can do so here.