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Our vision when we set up the ACE Programme was to tackle the huge decline by 75% of the black British community in the game, however our journey over the last few years has come to mean so much more.
Our team who have engaged over 10,000 young people working in inner cities and mainly deprived communities have come to see the bigger picture of what sport can do and also some of what our sport, Cricket, needs to be doing more of. Cricket is such a powerful tool to engage, build community, support the development of young people and their families as well as inspire a generation. Connecting with young people who either sat outside our traditional system or hadn’t had the opportunity to be introduced, and now seeing the impact cricket plays in their lives is truly special. Many of who are now chasing their dreams to play at the highest level.
We have also had a chance to learn about and challenge some of the misconceptions that surround our communities around lack of interest, and have come to realise the true focus is to not only provide grassroots opportunities but redesign genuine pathways that work for the community needs, provide resources, build trust and a safe space they can feel and be themselves.
In a short space of time, we have been inspired by the level of engagement, connection, and amount of untapped talent. We hope to see not only future players but some of the next generation of coaches, sports journalists, broadcasters, administrators and CEOs come from these communities.
We started with a vision of a talent ID programme and have realised to truly solve the problem it is about working in partnerships to develop the programme from the grassroots to the elite. We could not have achieved what we have over the last few years without our founding partner Surrey County Cricket Club, Sport England who had the vision to invest and challenge us to reach further, Royal London who helped us expand into Bristol and develop the scalable model, and the ECB who have supported the expansion of the programme, especially into the North of the country.
A special thanks to our partnering counties (Surrey, Middlesex, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire) who are doing incredible work in their communities and connecting on shared values. I would also like to thank our delivery team spearheaded by our amazing Director of Programmes, Chevy Green.
We truly believe cricket has the ability to be representative of our society and support young people from diverse and lower socioeconomic backgrounds to thrive. The desire from the game is at the highest it has ever been to become truly inclusive and we are excited to play our part.
Ebony Rainford-Brent
Ebony Rainford-Brent MBE
experience significantly higher social identity vs 77%at other sporting organisations
of players have engaged in more physical activity since that since joining ACE
the average increase in weekly activity in our participants
of senior scholars who already had a keen interest in playing
inspired via social media
saw people they could relate to
No. of pupils engaged
No. of schools engaged
of schools not engaged with cricket previously
avg. percentage of students that are Black in our schools vs (the national avg. of 10.8%)
No. of Hubs
of our participants that are female
from African Caribbean Backgrounds
of participants that do NOT play cricket outside of ACE
Scholars
Elite Scholars
Total Academy Triallists
Fixtures in 2022
no. of players in County Age Groups
percentage of games won in the 2022 season
transition rate of participants to County Age Groups
the number of academy scholars who we supported in gaining coaching qualifications and are now working across our programme
children and young people engaged through the programme
the number of cities we are in
the number of people working or volunteering on the programme
the number of academy scholars who we supported in gaining coaching qualifications and are now working across our programme
the percentage of staff, volunteers, ambassadors and trustees from Black, Mixed Black and other ethnic minorities
Our strategy Uniting the Movement is all about tackling inequalities and ensuring sport and physical activity engages everyone. We know there has been a 75% decline in Black British players in professional cricket since the 90s . That’s why we are proud to have funded ACE who’ve already had a huge impact on the number of young black players engaging in cricket. It’s wonderful to see ACE expand into 6 regions across the country and see many of their young players transfer into county and district talent pathways.
Well done to Chevy, Ebony, and the ACE team for their hard work and achievements over the first two years. I am a big fan of ACE and look forward to seeing their continued progress and collaboration to create a fair and equitable sport system.
Tim Hollingsworth – CEO, Sport England
“We have seen first-hand the difference the ACE Programme is making to young people in the Black British community. It’s been fantastic supporting ACE both financially and through leveraging our previous partnership rights by donating match day branding and providing access to high-performance centres. We look forward to watching ACE continue to expand and engage more young people in cricket.”
Julie-Ann Douglas, Head of Brand at Royal London
“The continuing success of the ACE programme serves as an inspiration to what cricket can achieve when we work together to make our game more inclusive.
We must sustain a determination to support people from under-represented groups so that everyone is able to realise their ambitions in cricket, and feel welcomed as they do so.
The ACE programme embodies that ambition and, most importantly, it is having a meaningful impact giving more people from Black communities more opportunities to engage with cricket.
That was the ambition the ECB committed to when we began our partnership with ACE a couple of years ago. It is hugely exciting to see how effectively the programme has been able to evolve and expand its reach to more young people from Black communities across England and Wales.”
Clare Connor – Interim CEO, ECB
After the success of our programmes in London, Birmingham and Bristol (with the support of Royal London), the ECB provided additional funding to expand our programmes nationally. Manchester, Nottingham, Leeds, Sheffield and North London were the areas selected to receive full-time programmes.
In December, we launched our Sheffield programme in partnership with the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation, with our new Development Officer, Andre Jackson, taking the reigns there. Andre will be based at Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club and will deliver school and community sessions to create a strong foundation in the area before launching a new academy further down the line.
Our programme in North London will be supported by Middlesex CCC with recruitment starting in early 2023. We also hope to continue our work with the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation to launch our programme in Leeds in 2024.
After an enduring recruitment process, we hired a new Cricket Development Officer, Patrick Gada. He will be based at Trent Bridge as part of our partnership with NCCC and will start working on the programme from mid-January 2023.
We are also pleased to announce our new Cricket Development Officer in Manchester, Mick Fletcher, who started at the beginning of the year. As per our partnership with Lancashire Cricket Foundation, Mick will be based at Emirates Old Trafford.
· Royal London
· Sport England
· ECB
· The Captain Tom Foundation
· African Caribbean Cricket Association
· Counties
· Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation
· Lancashire Cricket Foundation
· Middlesex CCC
· Nottinghamshire CCC
· Surrey County Cricket Club
· Surrey Cricket Foundation
· Warwickshire County Cricket Club
· Warwickshire Cricket Board
· Yorkshire Cricket Foundation
· Photographers and Videographers
· Adam Benjamin
· Russell Barrow
· Vincent Bell
· Steve Wakeford
· All of our Staff and Volunteers
· Our Board of Trustees
· All of our Donors and Supporters
· All Schools and Community Organisations that we have worked with nationally
· All of our Partner Cricket Clubs
This video was filmed during the commercial agreement between Royal London and the ECB which has now come to an end.**