This area of development in Oxfordshire Cricket is vital for the future health of the game. People’s expectations and requirements from sport and recreation are changing - we must ensure cricket is relevant to secure its future.
Our Strategy for increasing particiption in Cricket in Oxfordshire includes focusing on these key areas (along with Club Development which may be found in a seperate section) -
Disability Cricket
Create oppotunities for disabled players to get involved in our game by support and developing existing clubs in their offerings, whilst establishing regional hub clubs to engage a wider audience. We mus promote disabled players in cricket by offering chances to upskill coaches to maximise the experience gained by disabled players.
Women and Girls
Providing adequate opportunities to women and girls of all ages and abilities to increase participation. Support and develop existing clubs and promote the accessibility of joining a cricket club, whilst establishing regional hub clubs to engage a wider audience. Protect and promote females in cricket by offering chances to upskill high level players as coaches to act as role models to inspire more girls to play at grassroots level.
Schools
As an organisation a key area to developing cricket in Oxfordshire is looking at the entry points available to the sport. A key entry point at present is our growing schools program that introduces cricket to thousands of children per year. Our challenge with the schools program is to ensure the migration of these young players to regular participation after this introduction, which will mainly occur through effective club engagement.
Informal and 'non-traditional' forms of cricket
Opportunities for other people to start or resume cricket is also essential - on a national level ‘Player Retention’ is a key challenge, with aged 14+ providing a popular time to stop participation in team sports. We must plan to introduce cricket back/to these people - and remove the barriers stopping them from enjoying our game.