The academy, hosted at the club's Indoor Cricket School in Finchley, will hold trials this month. The second to be opened in London, programmes are already running out of Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham
Middlesex are opening an academy to support the ACE Programme and will host trials later this month.
The second such scheme to be based in London, the club's Indoor Cricket School in Finchley will host the academy which aims to provide opportunities in cricket for those from African and/or Caribbean backgrounds.
Open trials for young players aged between nine and 21 will be staged on the evening of February 20.
Successful programmes are already running out of Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham.
ACE was launched in 2020 by former England international Ebony Rainford-Brent to address a 75 per cent drop in participation among Black cricketers in England and to less than 1 per cent in the recreational game.
The ACE Programme is the brainchild of Ebony Rainford-Brent (Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
Garfield Struthers, Middlesex’s ACE development officer, said: "To have this ACE Academy will help provide opportunities for children and young adults from African and/or Caribbean backgrounds to develop as they explore their dreams of forging a career in cricket.
"It is great that Middlesex Cricket are working to help break down barriers and afford young people the chance to be inspired by the game of cricket.
"Hopefully we will start to reap the rewards in the coming years when we see academy graduates make their first team debuts for the club."
Middlesex's participation director Kari Carswell added: "As a county, we are so proud to be working with ACE, it's a really exciting partnership in Middlesex.
The programme was formed at Surrey CCC in January 2020 (Ben Hoskins/Getty Images for Surrey CCC)
"Garfield is running an ACE Academy for juniors and seniors, and this complements our pathway programme really well. We want to provide everyone in Middlesex an opportunity to play cricket in an enjoyable, safe environment.
"It’s such an exciting time for cricketers in Middlesex."
The announcement comes 48 hours after Middlesex appointed former Arsenal FC foundation director Will Stone as chair of their new charity, Middlesex in the Community.
The charity will aim to increase participation in cricket across 17 London Boroughs that are traditionally part of Middlesex, with state schools in the capital being among the organisations earmarked to benefit.
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