DEVELOPMENT OF LADIES VI CRICKET
Early in 2015, The Primary Club received an application from John Garbett (Head of Development for Blind Cricket England and Wales, BCEW) for funding to put together a truly national VI cricket club for women, borne out of their desire to form such a group.
As John’s application states:
“There are more women than ever before interested in playing our game, with around 20 currently taking part in regular development league games and another 10 or so either in squads or involved in the south eastern area training. Around 20 % of players at the annual development weekend were female. They are however, few and far between in the national league and non-existent in the England national squad. The main reason for the lack of female players in the upper echelons of our game is purely the natural higher levels of physical strength of the top male players and because of this, as developmen
t clubs grow and progress the more places are taken by males.
There are plenty of females playing other VI sports and they are slowly becoming aware of the benefits of VI cricket. We are also starting to catch players earlier in many areas of the country by coaching at Actionnaires and in schools. Therefore, I see a future with lots more women and girls and scope for a national women’s league structure in the near future, based on the four ECB regional areas eventually.
The initial plan would be to hold training days in convenient locations in the North & South of the country and to give intensive coaching at these sessions. This would then move quickly on to training sessions at a central location for all concerned, thus building up a group of female VI cricketers.
This would involve both UK and International variants of the game, in order to improve the skill levels at domestic cricket and to build an understanding of the international game, leading to the formation of a large squad of players, which could then be broken down into geographical areas and formed into more localised teams.
Women’s blind cricket is also slowly developing in other countries and this would prepare a British national team for international competition in the near future.
Once the project is up and running, we would be looking for funding from other sources and would expect that once an international group, from all areas of the UK is established, this would be supported by the ECB, as in the men’s game.”
The Trustees agreed a grant of £4,000 to fund this proposal with money being earmarked for:
- purchase equipment
- coaching
- facility hire
- travel expenses of the participants
The first Ladies Development Days have taken place and were a great success with 17 players travelling from around the country.
Future dates already booked are Saturdays 27th June & 18th July and these are both at Reading:
University Sports Park
Shinfield Road
Reading
RG6 6UR.
For more details please contact John Garbett on :-
Mobile : 07972 360928 or email : garbett.j@sky.com
