In the last 25 years, the number of black British professional cricket players has declined by 75%. The same community also now accounts for less than 1% of the recreational game. That’s a severe drop from a community that always had a great interest in cricket.
Why has it happened? There are issues on all sides. But the result was, and is, a situation that needs changing.
ACE – which stands for African Caribbean Engagement – has been running as an independent charity for just over a year. It started as a Surrey CCC programme, then support from Sport England enabled us to become independent and take our focus beyond London and the south-east with programmes now established in Birmingham and Bristol, thanks to support from the ECB and Royal London as well.
As part of our activity, we’re targeting certain communities and boroughs where there’s often a lot of deprivation and low socio-economic statuses. Whatever your race, when you’re living in those conditions playing cricket can be a challenge. There’s the cost of buying equipment, the timing of events, and issues around travelling and accessing facilities, too.
Despite all of that, we’ve been making massive progress when, originally, we had no real expectations. We’re delivering in three cities and nine of our kids are young adults who’ve just completed their Foundation 1 coaching course, which is designed to be a first step into coaching. They’ll soon be working within ACE, getting mentored by our current coaches, and we can pay them too.
We’ve also got 75 kids on the academy programme and hundreds of kids playing in our community and school groups. If we continue to get the right funding, we might be able to go to even more areas.
Our coaching culture is built on communication and trust. There have always been loads of coaches from black and Asian communities at entry levels. But hardly any made it to the advanced or specialist levels. Now, thanks to John Neal, Head of Coach Development at the ECB, and his team, things are opening up and we’re getting people from different backgrounds involved.
Only a small number of players will ever make it in the professional game. So we’re trying to show that there are other avenues to pursue within the sport, whether that’s media, marketing, coaching or anything else.
Coaching is a fantastic thing to do. Having an impact on someone’s life is so rewarding, and I’d encourage anyone to do it. If you’re thinking about it, take that first step. Don’t waste a moment.
If you’re a youngster, speak to your school, your local club or even just do some Googling. Once you’ve started your coaching journey, it’s about finding the environments that work best for you. Look into different organisations. At ACE, for example, we’re more than happy to take on new coaches, help them, and mentor them – because it’s one thing doing your course, but it’s something completely different trying to coach 60 kids at your local club.
Find a place where you can get some work experience and whenever you can, coach in different environments. The ECB’s icoachcricket is a great resource, with hundreds of coaching drills and videos. Have a look at that. Take different ideas from different people, and just try to keep your ideas broad.