Dorset Cricket Board

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Chairman’s report for the 2020 AGM
What a strange beginning to what was planned to be an exciting first year of our 5-year strategy to grow cricket participation in Dorset.
In March 2020 when lock-down was introduced, like all counties in the SW, we furloughed all but two staff members until the end of June. This stopped most cricket development work apart from supporting clubs and administration and payroll activities.
This was an abrupt stop in what had been a fast paced journey through 2018 to 2020, culminating in our presenting Dorset’s 5 year strategy for cricket growth to the ECB in early March 2020.
In 2016, the ECB realised that cricket participation was declining yearly and the game was losing the interest of youngsters. To address this, they launched “Cricket Unleashed”, a strategy to fund the growth of cricket activities through 2020 to 2024, this eventually morphed into “Cricket Unleashed 2.0” in January 2019.
Not only did the ECB want county boards to bid for funding based upon defined projects and stretching targets, they also wanted the boards to restructure to become a skill-based organisation and adopt modern governance principles.
In April 2017, the old board under the chairmanship of Barry Lewis, formally agreed to plan to restructure in order to be in a position to continue to bid for ECB funding in 2019. At that time the board was formed from representatives of the various groups that organise cricket in Dorset such as the County cricket club, the league, Dorset Schools Cricket Association, Dorset Association of Cricket Officials, the Dorset Coaches Association and Youth Development organisations.
In October 2017, in a meeting solely about governance, John Ridout agreed to write a strategy paper that culminated with the old board handing over responsibility to the new board in September 2018 after a series of steps. This led to:
• Two meetings with the ECB in October 2017.
• In the December 2017 meeting, the board appointed three members: John Ridout, Dave Porter and Tom Snape to join the new board to provide continuity and to lead the transitional phase.
• Meetings with the ECB to discuss the evolving “Cricket Unleashed 2.0” strategy.
• Job descriptions and adverts for four cricket-based board members and two independent directors to join the new board in September.
• Interviews with prospective candidates in August and appointment of 6 new board members to join the existing three founder members, the County Welfare Officer and the Cricket Development Director to make 11.
• The creation of Cricket Dorset Ltd on 19th September as a private limited company by John Ridout and the transfer of all assets from the old board to the new.
The new board met twice in January 2019 and immediately started to formulate the bones of a cricket growth strategy spanning 2020 to 2024. The meeting with professional staff was especially productive as we split into sub-groups to flesh out plans for growth in a number of different areas. This was captured by Keith Brewer and formed the basis of what was to become the Dorset Cricket board 5 year plan, executive summary and Sponsorship offer. Some steps along the way:
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• Meeting with the County Club in April 2019.
• Club and Partner consultation day in May 2019.
• Club and Partner Consultation event with Dorset Cricket Clubs and Active Dorset.
• Draft plans produced ready for review in autumn 2019.
• Discussion with the Dorset Health service on possible collaboration to introduce cricket activities.
• Written consultation period to January 2020.
• Dorset Board approval in February 2020.
• Presentation to the ECB on 2nd March 2020 of the Dorset plan with the intention of implementing the first year from March 2020.
I am proud of the effort put into the plan by all the professional staff, led by Keith, the board and constituent bodies in Dorset Cricket. I also thought we were well placed to exceed our targets in the first year for the following reasons:
• The appointment of Cameron Boyle to upgrade our web site, provide regular communication bulletins and help edit the 5-year plan.
• The appointment of Katrina to be develop Women and girls cricket in Dorset and the manner in which the cricket festivals, matches and indoor games have been enthusiastically taken up by teams.
• The appointment of Sean Fitzgerald as another community coach to drive All Stars, Chance to Shine and Street cricket participating numbers in the West and North of Dorset. (It should be noted as at the beginning of March 2020, we had already increased our Chance to Shine targets for school delivery compared to the same period in 2018).
• The appointment of Richard Scott as Head Performance coach (boys) and his sterling efforts at getting Dorset appointed as one of the new Emergence Player Programme centres.
• The appointment of Angie Pittaway, in February 2020, as board member responsible for disability cricket development.
• The appointment of Katie Azulay in March 2020 as board member responsible for the growth of Women and girls cricket.
• The strong relationships built up with Dorset county Club, Hampshire and Somerset.
• The indications from the ECB that we could become an ECB premier league after presentations by Alan Graham.
The ECB estimate that the virus will cost them about £380 million in lost income and county and club support money. The impact of this for next year’s plans remains to be seen
However, we have a strong team of professional staff and we are currently concentrating on mitigating the effects of Coronavirus-19 and beginning to plan for gentle emergence from lockdown. In the recent club survey, the majority of clubs were positive about being in a good position to restart cricket when it is thought to be safe, although there where some concerns about loosing players.
I wish you all well
Tom