Open letter to the Cambridgeshire cricket community – including players, coaches, umpires, parents, club officials, administrators – from Cambridgeshire Cricket Board.

The Cambridgeshire Cricket Board aims to maintain and grow participation levels in cricket across the County and to provide pathways for players to fulfil their potential. Put simply, we want to develop people’s love of the game.  We can only do this if cricket is played in a positive, supportive and collaborative way. We work with a broad range of partners and organisations to achieve our aims, including local leagues and the officials association.

This year we have been faced with poor weather conditions that have meant more games than normal have been cancelled or abandoned. Weather is out of our control, however PLAYER BEHAVIOUR is within our control. We have seen a distressing and unnecessary rise in cases of alleged ill-discipline and discriminatory language or behaviour that have been reported, alongside more that have not been formally reported. We ALL have a responsibility to improve this situation, regardless of your age, gender or ethnicity.

We need a game that people are able to say that it is `A Game For Me`. There needs to be an environment and culture that supports the inclusion of players, particularly younger players as they are learning and developing in the game. Without this, our playing numbers will start to decrease and people will choose something else. As people who love the game, we have a responsibility to change this for the better. There is enhanced responsibility and influence for a couple of leadership roles – captains of teams, and coaches of junior teams.

The Board are working alongside a committed group of league volunteer organisers whose help is essential to our game. They are becoming increasingly demotivated by having to deal with things, particularly player behaviour, which can so easily be avoided. Our game is relatively unique in that the majority of matches are self-governed by players umpiring games.

• Please accept decisions made by umpires, your team mates or the opposition
• Please make decisions within the laws of the game
• Please follow the rules/regulations of the competition in which you are playing

We will work alongside competition organisers to be strong in imposing sanctions on players and clubs who display ill-discipline and especially discriminatory behaviour, so please take this as a warning of our stance. The Cambridgeshire cricket community has the ability to change the situation for the better.

Thank you for considering what role you can play to create a better environment and culture for all players, and potential players, and whether some of your behaviours need to change.

As usual, the majority of games are played in a competitive spirit that people enjoy. We need to keep these going and identify what behaviours and relationships make a great game for all. Please look out for and complete the National Cricket Playing Survey which is due out in the next 2 weeks as its results can be filtered for us to use to improve the game locally. We also look forward to the weather being kinder to us for the remainder of the season.

Russell Doel

Head of Cricket Operations

Cambridgeshire Cricket Limited