England's best back CricketForce

England stars Alastair Cook, Monty Panesar and Simon Jones will headline the NatWest CricketForce campaign from April 7-9 2006.

The international players will be joined by numerous other prominent players from the county game and an estimated 70,000 volunteers as over 1,000 cricket clubs take part in the initiative.

NatWest CricketForce is an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) volunteering initiative aimed at rejuvenating the nation’s cricketing facilities with enough volunteers involved to fill the Millennium Stadium.

An estimated £20-25 million of investment will be generated directly for club cricket.

Upminster CC in Essex will launch the event on Friday April 7th at 11.30am with England stars Alastair Cook and Monty Panesar and new women’s Captain Charlotte Edwards.

Essex CCC players James Foster and Alex Tudor will join players from Surrey and England women’s all-rounders Rosalie Birch (Sussex) and Beth Morgan (Middx).

Players will swap bats for brushes and take on refurbishing the pavilion bar, digging up a patio area to accommodate a new disabled ramp and putting up new nets in time for the 2006 season.

Alastair Cook said: “NatWest CricketForce is a chance for everyone involved in the game to go to their local club and help out for a few hours.

“Cricket is supported by so many people of all ages and backgrounds, so join us and have some fun and help the next generation of players.

“If we create good facilities then youngsters will want to play cricket at their local clubs."

Richard Caborn MP, Minister for Sport, will join Yorkshire players at Shiregreen CC, Sheffield on Sunday 9th at 11.45am.

Across the weekend Graeme Hick, Richard Jones, Ben Smith and Stephen Davies (Worcester) will help out at Swindon CC; Ben Harmison, Gary Pratt, Dave Barrick and ex-Tynemouth player Gordan Muchall (Durham) will support Tynemouth CC in Northumberland on Saturday 8th with Simon Jones and Glamorgan players coaching juniors at St Fagan’s CC.

The whole Warwickshire squad will visit clubs in their area with Nick Knight and Jim Troughton at Coventry & N Warwick CC and Moeen Ali, Heath Streak and Jonathon Trott at Attock CC. Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Worcestershire are also sending their entire squads out to clubs across their counties.

Lancashire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Yorkshire and Surrey are all supporting the initiative by offering volunteers free tickets to a range of First Class matches including the Twenty20 Cup, C&G Trophy and Liverpool Victoria County Championship.

David Collier, ECB Chief Executive, said: “NatWest CricketForce places local cricket clubs at the centre of their communities.

"We are delighted to have so much support from players and, hopefully, people will be inspired to make their club a fun, safe and lively place for everyone to be involved with the game. Cricket needs volunteers to survive."

Helen Page, Marketing Director, NatWest said: "NatWest is committed to investing in the community so developing grassroots cricket in this way is important to our involvement in the game.

"We are again encouraging NatWest staff across our branch network to get involved with activity at their local cricket club, and by giving up their personal time they can also receive up to £500 for their local club as part of NatWest's Community Cashback Award Scheme."

NatWest CricketForce Showcase events are:

Upminster CC, Essex, Friday April 7 at 11.30am
Alastair Cook, James Foster, Alex Tudor (Essex), Monty Panesar and Charlotte Edwards

Tynemouth CC, Northumberland, Sat 8 at 11.30am
Ben Harmison, Gary Pratt, Dave Barrick, Gordon Muchall (Durham)

Darwen CC, Lancashire, Sat 8 at 11.30am and Wythenshawe CC, Lancashire, Sat 8 at 2.30pm. Lancashire players tbc

Swindon CC, Staffordshire, Sat 8 at 11.30am
Graeme Hick, Richard Jones, Ben Smith, Stephen Davies (Worcs)

Shiregreen CC, Sheffield, Sun 9 at 11.30am
Richard Caborn MP, Minister for Sport, Yorkshire players tbc

Bude CC, Cornwall, Sun 9 at 11.30am
Andrew Caddick Somerset and Tom Sharpe (Cornwall Captain)

Further info:

• Last year 665 clubs and 50,000 volunteers took part in NatWest CricketForce 2005
• So far, 1,049 clubs are registered for NatWest CricketForce 2006
• The NatWest Interactive Roadshow events help to bring cricket to the general public across the nation
• The Speed Star bowling competition at the roadshow has seen over 25,000 children take part over the last 4 years
• NatWest is the key sponsor of the following events in 2006: NatWest CricketForce, NatWest Inter Cricket Indoor League, Inter Cricket Summer Camps, NatWest Interactive Roadshow and Speed Stars bowling competition, the NatWest Series (two five-match ODI tournaments between England and Sri Lanka plus England and Pakistan) and the NatWest Women’s Series.
• Community Cashback Awards are a means of recognising the efforts of NatWest employees as fundraisers and/or volunteers. Community Cashback Awards allow NatWest to make a difference to the local community organisations and charities that benefit from the time, effort and skills of employees. In 2004, 5518 Awards were paid totalling £1.9m across the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which includes NatWest.