Around about 2 years ago Sport England engaged Knight, Kavanagh and Page (KKP) to manage for them what had become the hugely successful Clubmark programme.

When the England and Wales Cricket Board became the first national governing body to be licensed to award Clubmark accreditation on behalf of their own sport, they too turned to KKP for assistance with managing their burgeoning programme.

KKP have developed a website totally dedicated to Clubmark:  it is a mine of information and other news and well worth visiting.  KCB recommends that individuals register as a member - do that and you will get access to the “members only” area of the site.

Whilst on the subject of Clubmark and KKP, one of the things they maintain is a database of sports clubs that have been accredited. It’s available for download on their site - but only to members!

In the meantime the following might be of interest to you.  It’s the top 3 sports as far as accreditation is concerned:

Sport                        Clubmark
                                        Clubs
Cricket                                951
Swimming                         481
Rugby Union                     419

There are a total of 3,773 sports clubs throughout the country that have been awarded Clubmark.  Cricket is by far the most successful sport in those terms with 25% of the total number of Clubs accredited.

We’ve prepared the full list as it is at 9th May 2008 and made it available for download.

The May 2008 CricketForce newsletter is now available and contains lots of useful information including some very early news about the 2009 event.

The newsletter can be found on this website. 

As an urgent matter, the Evaluation deadline is 16th May 2008 – please go to the ECB website and follow the link to complete yours.

Would all Clubs please note that Clubmark now requires an insurance policy to be in place which provides cover for £5 million public liability and for all junior coaching and match activity.  This is a change from the previous figure of £2 million.

To help Clubs ECB has negotiated such a policy with two providers, Marshall Wooldridge and Club Care Insurance Programme - Cricket Foundation at Kerry London. 

Other providers are of course available but a check should be made with them that cover as described above is part of their policy.

Proof of the necessary cover by way of a copy of the Club’s Policy is required to be included in a Clubmark Evidence File and also to be displayed on the Club’s noticeboards. 

Insurance is an item that any Clubmark site visit will cover:  it includes any Annual Health Check your Club may be randomly selected for as well as any visit arranged as part of the accreditation or re-accreditation process.

Some important news for any Club seeking Clubmark accreditation, re-accreditation and completing an Annual Health Check.

There are a number of important changes to the documentation required for Clubmark, no matter the stage you are working with at the moment.  All are available for download. 

ECB Equity Policy which needs to be incorporated into your Club’s Constitution

A Dressing Room Policy is required as part of the process

A policy covering the behaviour of Club Member’s and Guests is required as part of the process

There are guidelines covering Junior Players playing in Adult Matches which need to be included.  These were previously circulated by Dave Nash, County Welfare Officer.  You might also be interested in advice from ECB covering the selection of Young Players for Adult Matches.

Following a recent change and advice from ECB, it is now a requirement that Parents, Guardians or Carers of Young People in Cricket are automatically given non-voting membership to the Club.  The model Junior Membership Form has been amended to include this requirement.

As England continued to bear the brunt of bad weather with a flurry of snow in early April some of the Kent U15 girls were out in Stellenbosch taking on the Boland U15 side in their first game of their South Africa tour. A few miles up the road the U19 girls played against their opposite numbers at Boland Park in Paarl. The U15 girls won by a convincing margin of 98 runs while U19 side lost their game due to some inapt batting performances by the middle order after Tammy Beaumont and Sarah Kennet had given them a solid start with a stand of 70 for the first wicket. The manager has issued assurances the collapse had nothing to do with the smell of vineyards in the close proximity of the ground!

Click to read more ...

Would all clubs please note that Mr and Mrs David Bentley will be taking over the role of Kent Cricket Board County Fixture Bureau.  The contact phone number for them is 01732 840336.

Mr and Mrs Bentley take over from Cathy and Chris Rawson and KCB would like to take this opportunity to extend sincere thanks to them for the sterling job they have done over many years.  It really is an invaluable service and we are grateful for all the help they have given to clubs.

Clubs needing details of all the local Fixture Bureaux will find them by following this link.

Canterbury Cricket Club is celebrating after receiving a grant of over £45’000 from the Community Cricket Development Program which is administered by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The grant will help the club finance the construction of a new cricket ground at the Polo Farm Sports Club complex. Work on the project will begin in the next few weeks and it is envisaged that the new ground will be ready for use in 2010.

Full details and a chance to read the Press Release from Canterbury CC can be found here.

The ECB is aware that The Community Cricket Trust (CCT), Institute of Cricket Umpires and Scorers (ICUS) and On-Side Cricket Limited (OSCL) have approached a number of cricket clubs offering advice and access to funding streams.
 
The email sent offers an opportunity for clubs to visit the websites of OSCL and ICUS to consider the benefit of being affiliated to the scheme.
 
Clubs should be aware that CCT and OSCL do not receive any official Government funding, and have no affiliation to the ECB.  ICUS are not recognised by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, and therefore are not recognised by the ECB.
 
The ECB provides revenue funding and grants to all cricket clubs eligible and offers advice on Umpires and Scorers via the ECB Association of Cricket Officials (ECB ACO) and does so in a regulated and officially sanctioned environment.
 
In order to provide an overview of what is available via the ECB, we have set up a page on the ECB website at www.ecb.co.uk/funding where you can find information regarding the sources available and redirect club members to ECB funding opportunities.

Good news – some Lord’s Taveners Cricket Bags are coming to Kent.

Colts Under 13 Cricket bags (Fearnley)
The Abbey School, Faversham
Crofton School, Catford

Junior Under 11 Cricket bags (Gray Nicolls_
Hollingbourne CC, Maidstone

Kwik Cricket Bags (Readers)
Nonington CEP School, Dover
Blue Bell Hill CC, Walderslade, Chatham

If you want to know how your Club might qualify for Lord’s Taverners Cricket equipment, contact your Community Cricket Manager

The England and Wales Cricket Board has announced a 26-man England Performance Squad for this summer’s international season.

The EPS, which has been chosen by the England selectors, consists of 12 players currently on 12-month ECB contracts plus 14 non-contracted players.

It includes three players who are uncapped at international level - Michael Carberry, Adil Rashid and James Tredwell - together with the Kent opening batsman Robert Key, who last played for England in the South Africa in 2004-05.

The national selector, Geoff Miller, said: “The England Performance Squad is designed to allow Peter Moores to closely monitor the development of international players and better prepare them for the demands of the international game.

“The selectors can name up to 30 players in the EPS, but we have decided to keep four places vacant at present in order to give ourselves greater flexibility and we will reserve the right to add further players to the squad if their performances in domestic cricket merit it.

“We were delighted with the progress made by several of our younger players during the winter both with the full England side and the England Lions but have decided not to award six-month summer contracts to any individuals at this stage of the season.

“The awarding of contracts is based on our assessment of a player’s performance in international cricket over a period of time and we can, of course, opt to award contracts on a pro-rata basis during the middle of the domestic international season if appropriate.”

England Performance Squad 2008
Tim Ambrose (Warwickshire) : James Anderson* (Lancashire) : Ian Bell* (Warwickshire)  : Ravi Bopara (Essex) : Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire) :  Michael Carberry (Hampshire) : Paul Collingwood* (Durham) :  Alastair Cook* (Essex) : Andrew Flintoff* (Lancashire)  : Stephen Harmison* (Durham) : Matthew Hoggard* (Yorkshire) :  Robert Key (Kent) : Dimitri Mascarenhas (Hampshire)  : Philip Mustard (Durham) : Monty Panesar* (Northamptonshire)  : Kevin Pietersen* (Hampshire) : Matthew Prior (Sussex) :  Adil Rashid (Yorkshire) : Owais Shah (Middlesex) : Ryan Sidebottom*  : Nottinghamshire) : Andrew Strauss* (Middlesex) : Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire) : James Tredwell (Kent) : Chris Tremlett (Hampshire)
Michael Vaughan* (Yorkshire)  Luke Wright (Sussex)

* Denotes those 12 players currently in receipt of 12-month ECB contracts which run from October 1 2007 to September 30 2008.