Grassroots cricket in England needs to be inclusive
Development isn’t just an economic buzzword, it has become a sporting one as well
Tariq Engineer
25-Feb-2013
Development isn’t just an economic buzzword, it has become a sporting one as well. Across the globe, various professional sports bodies are pushing the development of their respective disciplines. Implicit in development is the concept of inclusion – the more people you can get playing your sport, the better your chances of success. Writing in the Guardian, David Conn finds fault with the ECB’s approach, saying it hasn't been inclusive enough.
Clarke accepts that cricket, perhaps more than any other sport, reflects this country's gaping inequality, with laundered fields and pavilions at private schools while Tye labours ina series of meetings to see an Astroturf strip laid in his school's local Ordsall Park.
"It is fair to point to the divide," says Clarke, "although it is a wider problem than just cricket. Our job is to encourage participation, and integration of different ethnic groups, which cricket has a great ability to do because of Asian communities' enthusiasm for the game. We are having to address years of decay and deprivation, but we are making progress."
Tariq Engineer is a former senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo