Sussex Cricket Foundation and Ned’s Fund partner to support local young cricketer

The Sussex Cricket Foundation is delighted to announce that it has teamed up with Ned’s Fund to provide financial support to Udage Diyon De Silva, a young promising cricketer who has excelled on the Sussex Cricket Pathway and in County Age Group cricket.

Ned's Fund* is devoted to supporting charities which give young people a chance to do something entirely new; to discover more about themselves and set a clear way of seeing their true potential. 

To date, Ned’s Fund has given more than £66,000 to charities that provide a great range of opportunities for young people.  

The charity has donated £2,400 to the Sussex Cricket Foundation’s Champions Fund, which has been created to support a player in the pathway by helping to provide funds for kit, equipment, travel, and other training costs.

The Sussex Cricket Foundation set up its Champions Fund in 2021, to help financially support talented players within our boys & girls’ pathway to fulfil their potential.

The fund helps support parents with programme, equipment, and travel costs to remove barriers from players accessing the game.

To date through funds raised by the Foundation and support from partners such as Rathbones, the fund has supported 11 players totalling £9,000.

We continue to look for additional funding for our Champions Fund and would encourage anyone interested in supporting to contact Gary Wallis-Tayler, Community Cricket Director.

Udage Diyon De Silva lives in Crawley, schools at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) and plays club cricket locally for Crawley Eagles Cricket Club.

Gary Wallis-Tayler, Community Cricket Director, said: “I am thrilled to be working in partnership with Ned’s Fund to help financially support players through our Champions Fund.

“The fund was created to help remove financial barriers and to support talented players within our boys, girls or disability cricket pathways.

Diyon has been identified by our pathway coaching team as an extremely talented player with potential to progress through the county age group programme, hopefully this financial support will go some way to helping Diyon to fulfil those ambitions.”

Diyon’s parents have expressed their thanks: “We are truly grateful for the support that Ned’s Fund is providing for Diyon. He really enjoys his involvement on the Sussex Pathway and in the specialist, development groups that he’s been selected for.

This will allow us to provide more opportunity for Diyon to play the game that he loves so much”.

Jo Marsden, founder of Neds Fund added “I’m thrilled to be working in partnership with the Sussex Cricket Foundation to support their Champions Fund.

It was such a pleasure to meet Diyon with his parents and to witness Diyon’s obvious natural talent. 

I’m really looking forward to an exciting year for Diyon and Ned’s Fund. Ned’s Fund exists to help young people find their path through life, whatever that may be.

Cricket, where individual talent and teamwork are equally important, provides the perfect setting for personal development as well as sporting excellence."

*Ned’s Fund is a restricted fund under the auspices of Prism the Gift Fund, Registered Charity No 1099682.

 

Where Cricket Meets...Sam Allardyce 

On March 31st the Sussex Cricket Foundation hosts its annual ‘Where Cricket Meets…’ event and this year’s special guest is former Bolton, West Ham and England manager, Sam Allardyce.

Held at the Hilton Brighton Metropole, the afternoon will include a Q&A discussion as well as stories from ‘Big Sam’s’ playing and managerial days in football.

Guests are welcome to attend from midday, with the event and a three-course lunch starting at 1pm.

You’ll also have the chance to win yourselves some amazing prizes through a charity auction, raffle and game of Heads or Tails.

All of the money raised goes to supporting the Foundation in its mission to grow the game and make cricket as accessible as possible for everybody.

Tickets are selling fast, so click here to get yours today.

To find out more about the amazing work the Sussex Cricket Foundation does, or if you have any enquiries, please contact: foundation@sussexcricket.co.uk