Ebony Rainford-Brent: "Cricket can become a vehicle for helping people from different backgrounds"

The ACE Programme chair, former England cricketer and World Cup winner outlines her leadership philosophy, reveals who inspires her and says her sport can assist in the social mobility of disadvantaged young people

The ACE Programme has set a target of five graduates from the talent pathway obtaining county contracts in the next five years, according to chair Ebony Rainford-Brent.

An expansion of the African Caribbean Engagement scheme across nine counties and with England and Wales Cricket Board backing means as many as 10,000 young players will be passing through the programme every year.

Rainford-Brent, the first black woman to play for England, a 2009 World Cup-winning and now on the Surrey board as director of culture and values at the Kia Oval, has previously spoken emotively about the subject of inclusion. But now she wants tangible results.

^{The Kia ACE programme (Supplied)}

"We do have some metrics," she told The Cricketer. "The big dream and vision is for cricket to be representative of different backgrounds and groups.

"In terms of tangibles, we would like to see five players who come through ACE in the next five years and get county contracts, whether that is first team or second team.

Speaking from Kia's Best Seats In The House during Surrey's Vitality Blast fixture versus Hampshire, she added: "The other target is for our talent pathways to be representative.

"When you start to look at the demographics of the cities that we're working with, the black population is something we're focused on, there are a lot of groups within that that we're looking to bring through.

^{Rainford-Brent was part of England's World Cup win in 2009 (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)}

"So we would like to that reflected in the talent pathways in the junior age groups in the next five years."

The seismic contribution Rainford-Brent has made to the sport following on from her playing days was recognised recently when she collected her MBE for services to cricket and charity. However she admits to being "uncomfortable" with labels such as 'pioneer' and 'inspiration' as you can "lose purpose of what you're trying to do".

But as for who inspires her, former Surrey chair Richard Thompson and ex-chief executive Richard Gould, now at Championship football club Bristol City, are among the figures she most looks up to.

"I've listened to them say 'just crack on and lead'," she explained. "I remember when I started here in a lot of roles on the board and positions of influence I was quite nervous about saying what I thought or wanted to happen. 

"I saw the way they went about it. If you want something go out and lead and make it happen. They've totally influenced my thinking and my career. They're open minded about women and diversity in cricket so I've been able to use them as soundboards and then go out and make things happen. 

"(Surrey director of cricket) Alec Stewart has been my mentor for some time. I was obsessed with him as a kid growing up and now I saw him out there on the pitch I am always inspired by him and how he conducts himself."

"The UK could do some work to be more socially mobile and cricket as a sport is a perfect example of how society could become more socially mobile."

It is through Thompson and Gould that Rainford-Brent has developed her leadership philosophy, which focuses on encouraging others and galvanising fresh thinking.

"The most important thing I've found about leadership, leading and being in the positions to respond to is about the vision," she said.

"I've learnt that it is important to have a clear vision but emotively captivate people. 

"If I take someone like Martin Luthur King, who said 'I have a dream'. If he'd said 'I have a plan', no one would have got on the train. It's corporate. But he emotively captivated. 

"With ACE, we want to diversify the talent pathway and our game to be represent and for different types of people come into the game. 

"When we talk to our team we talk from the perspective of how to inspire, making it more diverse and representative of society and that makes us more captivated.

^{Rainford-Brent collected her MBE for services to cricket and charity in May (Pool/Getty Images)}

"From a leadership perspective that inspires me, knowing what the vision is, where we're trying to go and how we're trying to make a change to society and the people who are part of the community. 

"I try and do that when I'm leading. None of us are going to get it perfect, we're all faulted humans, but if you can share where you think the train is going and why you should get on it then we can do so much as a collective."

Research by the thinktank Sutton Trust recently concluded the social mobility expectations of disadvantaged young people are more desolate than ever.

Data regarding home ownership and income painted a bleak picture, and Rainford-Brent believes cricket can play its own part in improving prospects.

"The UK could do some work to be more socially mobile and cricket as a sport is a perfect example of how society could become more socially mobile," she sated.

"For lower socially economic groups, more diverse groups looking to progress. Cricket can become a vehicle for helping people from different backgrounds get further and get to positions of leadership. Sport is the best vehicle for impacting wider groups of people. 

"Really what we need to do at the moment is become more socially mobile, different types of people being part of our game is possible."

This article was brought to you in association with Kia. To find out more about Kia’s multi award winning electric range and their strong commitment to take the lead in electrification click here