"We have made real, tangible progress in recent years"
The ECB has published its updated Inspiring Generations strategy for England and Wales as well as action plans to remove barriers to entry to cricket and to drive equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) across the sport.
It details the ECB’s vision of becoming England and Wales’ most inclusive team sport whilst growing and uniting the game and leading it through global transformation.
The next strategic cycle to the end of 2028 contains various events like hosting of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2026, Men’s and Women’s home Ashes series in 2027 and cricket being included in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
These events provide an opportunity to ignite a passion for cricket.
The strategy sets out the ambition to:
- Expand the numbers of people engaging with cricket – through playing, watching, attending or following online – to an average of 14m each year.
- Grow the number of children playing cricket in an average week by 10%.
- Make further progress in improving visibility, profile and access across the game for women and girls to drive the perception of cricket as a gender-equal sport.
- Measurably improve cricket’s diversity, inclusion, equity and fair access.
- Ensure the health of the men’s and women’s professional game, supporting 18 high-performing, inclusive and financially sustainable professional counties.
- Alongside the overarching strategy, the ECB and its partners, including the county network, will also be focused on delivering action plans to address barriers to entry and diversify the sport at all levels.
These plans were recommended by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) in 2023.
It set out further details to address the issues identified by the ICEC which found that structural and institutional racism, sexism and class-based discrimination continue to exist across cricket.
These include:
- The ECB is launching a major effort to bring cricket to more state schools, aiming to introduce the sport in 500 secondary schools by 2030. With government funding, they plan to offer free cricket to 3.5 million primary school children, expand opportunities to play in Special Educational Needs schools and invest up to £26 million to improve facilities in 16 towns or cities for state school students.
- They will invest £3.5 million in ethnically diverse areas by 2027, building 450 new facilities and offering free spots in national youth cricket programmes to reduce cost barriers. The ECB will also support 70 players annually through a partnership with the South Asian Cricket Academy, and engage 21,000 young people via the African Caribbean Engagement (ACE) program. They’re working to increase diversity in leadership across the sport.
- The ECB is restructuring the talent pathway, delaying county age group programmes until U13, and doubling the number of players entering through early engagement programmes. Players from state schools in County Age Group programs will receive 50% more coaching at 10 locations in a pilot programme. Coaches will receive support to make better, unbiased selections.
- As part of a Volunteer Action Plan, the ECB will increase the number of young volunteers by 50%, reaching 3,500, and will break down barriers for underrepresented groups. Every volunteer will get training in anti-discrimination and inclusion.
These efforts are part of the ECB’s EDI action plan, which includes training 2,000 cricket staff on inclusion and tackling discrimination and educating 150 leaders within the game on racial literacy.
Richard Gould, ECB CEO said:
“Today’s announcements are the roadmap for where we will take cricket over the course of the next four years.”
“The delivery of our strategy and positive change in the sport is the responsibility of all of us, led by the ECB to set out how this change will happen.
“I am fortunate that I get to spend a lot of time in counties and clubs across England and Wales and I have no doubt that everyone in the game, including our charity and commercial partners, and players and volunteers at all levels of the sport, are supportive of this ongoing change.”
Clare Connor, ECB Deputy CEO said: “When the ICEC report was published in 2023, we stated our commitment to long-term change and the publication of our action plans today demonstrates that cricket will not let up in its pursuit of making the sport one in which everyone feels welcome.
“We have made real, tangible progress in recent years and we are investing more than ever to open the sport to more people, from England teams right through to the smallest clubs in local communities.
“A huge amount of work has gone into these plans, with contributions from so many people across the game and I’d like to thank everyone for their extraordinary efforts and collaboration.
“I’d also like to thank all those working and volunteering in the game who are already bringing progress against these plans to life, whilst also sharing the joy of cricket with more and more people.”