Association of Cricket Officials Issue 29 | Page 25

What’s Going On Around the ECB? All Stars Flourishing This year has seen the introduction of a new programme aimed at getting children aged 5–8 involved in the game. Across around 2000 clubs there have been tens of thousands of children trying the game for the first time, having fun, learning the basic skills, and instilling that deep love for cricket. This incredible achie vement by the children’s team has put All Stars on-track to be one of the most successful entry-level programmes ever in the UK – a great triumph that helps to ensure cricket keeps growing and growing! ECB Announces Media Rights Deals from 2020 Onwards The ECB has announced the award of media rights for all of its domestic First Class county and international matches, played at home, from 2020–2024. The new five-year agreements secure strong strategic partnerships, wide distribution and increased financial investment to support the growth of the game, at all levels, in England and Wales. Ground-breaking partnerships with Sky Sports and the BBC will deliver: • a combined income of £1.1billion for all media rights – audio-visual, digital and audio – for use in the UK and Ireland • a powerful approach for driving engagement and fuelling grass-roots cricket with premier broadcast partner Sky Sports, shaped by the impactful Sky Ride model • live international T20s, matches from the women’s and new T20 competitions, prime-time evening highlights, digital clips and radio’s Test Match Special delivered by the BBC. Women’s Softball Cricket 2017 is an exciting year for women’s cricket! With the ICC Women’s World Cup hosted in England for the first time since 1993, we have a real platform to celebrate the women’s game and inspire more women to get involved in cricket as a player, official or a volunteer. Women tell us that they are looking for a fun, fast, social and safe version of the game, so we have taken these elements and created a new softball cricket offer that breaks down many of the perceived barriers women have to getting involved. We have set up over 180 softball cricket festivals across the country, with the aim of attracting over 5000 women to play the game. The festivals are all about fun, with teams of women coming together to play a few games of pairs cricket. Everyone gets a go and the focus is all about the experience rather than the result. Feedback from the first few festivals has shown that nearly 60% of the players have never played a game of cricket before, so we are clearly tapping into a new market. In the first year, we wanted to focus on those women who are already connected with cricket, through friends or family members, who have never had the opportunity to play themselves. They have spent many years on the other side of the boundary supporting their partners and children or making the teas, but have never been offered a format of the game that appeals to them. We think the softball cricket offer can appeal to lots of new players, helping to demystify the game, removing some of its complicated Laws and regulations, and just focusing on the playful essence that sits at the heart of the sport. email us at [email protected] contact us on 0121 446 2710 25