Inclusion drive given fresh impetus as new partnership is confirmed

GEORGE DOBELL: The project involving several key drives of inclusion in cricket is designed to help young Black and Asian athletes - especially young female athletes - across the UK

George Dobell | 22/03/2024 at 17:53

The ECB are set to launch a new research project designed to create more equality in the talent pathways.

The project, which is a joint partnership between the ECB, Birmingham City University (BCU), the ACE Programme, South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA) and Take Her Lead, is designed to help young Black and Asian athletes - especially young female athletes - across the UK.

Specifically, the project aims to demonstrate the barriers which exist to people from those communities and find ways to remove them.

"To create more effective and efficient systems, we need to understand how to work with more diverse groups within cricket," said project lead Dr Adam Kelly, a talent development expert from BCU.

"In order to widen the pool of potential, we also need to understand how to attract more British South Asian girls and women into the pathways, as well as retaining and transitioning them into higher playing levels."

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^{Ebony-Rainford Brent-ce ACE Programme is part of the partnership (Getty Images)}

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Chevy Green (right), director of programmes at ACE, is thrilled by the partnershipCricket

The project, named BESTA (an amalgamation of the names of all those involved: BCU, ECB, SACA, THL and ACE), will be one of the driving projects for the new Research Lab for Athlete and Youth Sport Development (RAYSD Lab) at BCU, which launched in January 2024. It will be supported by two dedicated BCU PhD students, Hina Shafi and Omar Green.

"We want to create environments where young people can be themselves in a space that accepts them," Chevy Green, Director of Programmes for ACE, said.

"It's great to be part of this project to diversify talent pathways to include more South Asian and African Caribbean cricketers, as well as other unrepresented groups.

"Cricket as a sport hasn't supported these unrepresented groups. Diversity is a fact. Inclusion is a choice. We're deciding to include everyone."

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