Cricket Unleashed is a plan for the game as a whole not one organisation within it. It will be the power of the game acting as one that will make cricket the heartbeat of the summer.
The plan has been designed by the game, for the game and is the ECB's new strategy for cricket to thrive from the grass roots up whether you are a cricket player, follower or supporter. Cricket Unleashed is based on five key elements (Clicking on each element will take you to the respective Cricket Unleashed page):
More Play
Great Teams
Inspired Fans
Good Governance & Social Responsibility
Strong Finance & Operations
More Play focuses on Clubs & Leagues, Kids, Communities and Casual. No area of the game is forgotten in this strategy, barriers to playing the game will be broken down and the measure of success will be how many people that our playing the game as a whole and the number of Under 16's playing the game. It is about inspiring a generation.
The focuses of Great Teams is from grass roots right top the top of the game. The areas highlighted are Pathway, Support, Elite Teams and England Teams with two specific and very clear measures of success. Our performances in World Cups on home soil and the number of international series that our side wins home and abroad, with the second measure being consistent and clearly defined county pathways that provide opportunities for Under 16 (girls and boys) to play professional and elite cricket.
To get Inspired Fans the areas being looked at are Fan Focused, New Audiences, Global Stage and Broadcast & Digital. The measure of success will be the number of people in England and Wales that have an interest in cricket and the number of Under 16's that attend professional matches.
Good Governance will also play a big part in the strategy by focusing on Integrity, Community Programmes, Our Environments and One Plan. This will be measured by co-ordinated local plans that align cricket organisations in each county to deliver this game-wide plan and by the number of people that benefit from community programmes.
The final element of Strong Finance & Operations focuses on People, Revenue & Reach, Insight and Operations. A key element for any initiative but this also brings Cricket Unleashed back in a full circle with the measures of success being the financial sustainability of cricket organisations in England and Wales as well as the investment in More Play, Great Teams and Inspired Fans.
At Oxfordshire Cricket we are really behind Cricket Unleashed, our own organisational strategies clearly overlap with those of this initiative and we look forward to the further development of cricket at grass roots, throughout the county and at the elite level across the country. Hopefully we can see cricketers progress from Oxfordshire to play on the biggest stage of them all.