Channel 4 uplift for school and inner city development

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), has announced that it will invest a further £1.2 million in key cricket development work over the next three years. Education, inner city promotion projects and the Kwik Cricket Road Show will be the main beneficiaries.

The money emanates from Channel 4's television contract with the ECB. Under the agreement, Channel 4 agreed to invest £15 million in marketing and promoting cricket, and it is a portion of this money which will be used for mutually agreed development purposes.

Education will receive the biggest boost with over £600,000 being invested in extensive Primary and Secondary school projects, as well as an education web-site and an education training programme. This represents a major uplift for ECB's existing two education development executives, who are based at Old Trafford in Manchester. Details on the programmes will be announced shortly.

Inner City projects, meanwhile, will receive £450,000 over three years, which represents a double increase over existing funding. The number of centres of inner city development - currently Newcastle, Bristol, Nottingham and the Essex London Boroughs - will be increased, thus re-inforcing ECB's commitment to promoting cricket to ethnic minorities.

The ECB Kwik Cricket Road Show, sponsored by Vodafone, will enter its third season of activity this summer and the Channel 4 money will help enhance the appeal of the mobile promotion unit. It will attend 25 venues throughout the U.K., delivering a fun cricket experience to over 20,000 children in 66 days of activity.

Further funds will help develop a cricket skills TV programme for Channel 4 for broadcast in 2001.

Keith Pont, ECB's Director of Development, said, "This Channel 4 investment represents a huge step forward as it allows us to be pro-active, as opposed to reactive, in our development work. The work we are now doing is cutting-edge - we are continually breaking new ground in developing fresh projects for the future.

"Channel 4 demonstrated itself to be an innovative broadcaster in its coverage of international cricket last year, and this philosophy is continued in these development activities.

"We will soon announce our exciting education plans. These will build on our existing educational success, recently highlighted in a Sport England report which showed that there has been a 3% increase in the amount of cricket played frequently by children at school."

David Brook, Channel 4's Director of Strategy and Development, said: "Channel 4 is in cricket for the long-term, which is why we believe investment in the game at grass roots level is just as vital as the excitement of the Test match arena.

"We are particularly delighted to be partnering the ECB on its excellent inner city, schools and Kwik Cricket initiatives in a concerted effort to attract the next generation of fans and players from a wide and varied background. Education, innovation and multi-culturalism are values that run through Channel 4, which is why the ECB's educational aims strike such a chord with our own ambitions."

ECB grass roots funding

The ECB distributes funds for grass roots development work via its charitable arm, The Cricket Foundation. Each year, for the past four years, approximately £2.5 million pounds has been divided between the 38 County Boards for local development purposes.

ECB sponsors / partners will contribute a combined £1.8m to a variety of specific grass roots cricket projects in 2000. Sponsors include Channel 4, Vodafone, NatWest, CGU, Wrigley, PPP healthcare, Rover, Subaru, Sun Life of Canada and BBC Radio.

In addition, ECB also recently announced an injection of £982,000 from Sport England as a further boost to grass roots cricket. This will be used to fund the appointment of four regional Women's Club Development Officers and three additional National Coaches, as well as to set up a new Groundsmanship Advisers Structure and a County Board Professional Support programme.

- ends -

For further information, please contact Mark Hodgson in Corporate Affairs: Tel: 0207 432 1251. Fax: 0207 289 5619. E-mail: mark.hodgson@ecb.co.uk