England’s Deaf and Learning Disability Teams begin their Ashes series in Brisbane on Wednesday to mark the start of what promises to be an exciting summer for disability cricket. The ECB’s Head of Disability Cricket, Ian Martin, has outlined what lies ahead, highlighted by the Ashes tour and the launch of the Disability Premier League in August.
This time two years ago we were looking forward to a fantastic summer of disability cricket.
For reasons we are all too familiar with, what followed was frustrating, with the restrictions in place reducing our opportunities to play.
However, our ambition to drive disability cricket forward has not been diminished, and thanks to a lot of hard work from people within ECB and the wider game we are once again on the cusp of a big year for the disability game.
It genuinely feels great to be able to say that and to share the list of upcoming events that will drive our ambition to make 2022 a year to remember:
INTERNATIONAL CRICKET INCLUSION SERIES
Our Deaf and Learning Disability Squads, captained by Devon’s George Greenway and Cheshire’s Chris Edwards respectively, are in Brisbane to compete in two separate Ashes series, running concurrently as part of the International Cricket Inclusion Series.
The Learning Disability team is returning to the venue where they retained the urn by beating the hosts 8-0 in 2019, so hopes are high for a repeat performance, but there’s no room for complacency.
Our Deaf team have had even fewer opportunities to play international cricket recently, and will arrive in Australia for the first time since 2011, when the series was drawn. Getting back the urn Australia won back in 2004 is the priority.
Both series will be contested over three one-day internationals and five T20s, with points awarded for each victory. The points will be tallied to decide the winner of each series with an overall winner claiming the Inclusion Series.
PARTICIPATION
Participation goes from strength-to-strength, with more teams than ever taking part in ECB-supported county competitions. Twenty-two counties enter 44 teams into our domestic programme, and with so many counties developing teams to enter in the future there is continued scope for growth.
Alongside competitive cricket, we have set up a new ‘development’ platform called CHALLENGE, to allow new teams to play different formats and, in some cases, to introduce players to structured games for the first time.
The CHALLENGE will be informal, and feature festivals, pairs cricket, mixed county teams playing 10, 15 or 20 overs a side to introduce fun in a structured environment while showcasing the unparalleled flexibility and adaptability of our sport to make it accessible to all sectors of our communities.
LORD’S TAVERNERS
The Lord’s Taverners, our development partners, continue to grow their Super 1s entry-level disability cricket programme across the country.
The programme is nothing short of inspiring as they take cricket to where disabled people congregate, including day centres, SEND schools and more.
Alongside Super 1s, the Lord’s Taverners run another flagship programme - Table Cricket. A national competition played by kids with high-level impairments, this year’s final is taking place in the Nursery Pavilion at Lord’s on 17 June.
Seeing these youngsters competing and enjoying their version of our sport is one of my highlights of the cricket calendar, and truly makes me proud to work in grassroots sport. I encourage everyone to take a look – it will make your day.
DISABILITY PREMIER LEAGUE
Following a successful pilot last year, the Disability Premier League will launch in August. It promises to be a landmark moment for cricket, with feedback from players, coaches and staff from last year’s pilot all factored into the tournament, which begins in Loughborough on 28 August.
The concept is to provide best vs best competition among our Learning Disability, Physical Disability and Deaf players, who will play side-by-side in the same teams. Four teams were selected following a draft on 9 May, with players evenly distributed depending on impairment group.
It’s a truly innovative and inclusive competition that provides a blueprint for showcasing the very best of disability cricket as a force for good in sport and wider society.
A round-robin tournament will take place over three weekends (28 Aug at Loughborough, 4 Sept at Wokingham CC and 11 Sept at Neston CC) with the top two teams contesting the final. For more information you can read the blog from England PD all-rounder Will Flynn, here.
UNIVERSITY OF WORCESTER INCLUSIVE CRICKET CENTRE
The University of Worcester recently announced plans to build the world’s first Inclusive Cricket Centre as part of their continued strategy to be the world’s leading academic centre for inclusive sport and coaching.
The ECB is part funding the centre, which will house two soundproofed net lanes specifically for blind cricketers, with the space doubling up as a bio-mechanics lab when not in use for blind cricket. Our England Disability Squads are set to use the centre as their home and access the disability-specific science and medicine support at the university, as well as state-of-the-art facilities.
The centre will be the showpiece of a partnership between the ECB, the University of Worcester, Worcestershire County Cricket Club, The Lord’s Taverners and the City of Worcester and provide benefits to the local community and cricketers too.
To celebrate, the England Physical Disability Team will play a strong Lord’s Taverners XI at New Road on Friday June 10 ahead of the Worcestershire Rapids v Derbyshire Falcons Vitality Blast fixture that evening.
The disability game starts at 1pm and it would be brilliant to see as many of you there as possible for what should be a great day. Ticket are available via the Worcestershire CCC website.
ends