“I believe everyone involved in cricket has a duty to ensure the safety and welfare of any child or adult at risk involved in the sport. So from prevention to protection, we want to make sure we are keeping children and vulnerable adults out of harm’s way both on and off the cricket pitch. Let us make Cambridgeshire Cricket an enjoyable, friendly and fun experience for all.” 

Michael O’Toole 
Chair – Cambridgeshire Cricket Board 

The ECB is clear that cricket should be a game for everyone. Children in particular are the future of our sport – so it’s vital that they experience cricket in a safe, friendly, secure and enjoyable environment.  Cambridgeshire Cricket is fully committed to making cricket a welcoming, safe, inclusive and enjoyable sport for young and old.

The ECB’s policy for Safeguarding Children in cricket is called ‘Safe Hands’ and Cambridgeshire Cricket have adopted Safe Hands to underpin all cricket activity in the county.  To access this as well as the ECB’s Safeguarding Adults policy and all guidance and procedures including the ECB Safeguarding kitbag use the following link:

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – The Official Website of the ECB

The ECB Safeguarding ‘Kit Bag’ is particularly useful for clubs and is organised into four headings:

• Policy including a template Safeguarding policy for clubs to produce their own
• Guidance with numerous guidance documents to assist and support clubs in fulfilling their Safeguarding responsibilities
• Templates a range of template documents for use by clubs to make it easy to produce their own policies, posters and forms to promote Safeguarding
• ECB Regulations a link to a page covering various safety regulations to protect young people in cricket

Our County Safeguarding officer, Jamie Rice leads on Safeguarding for Cambridgeshire Cricket and is there to support clubs in fulfilling their safeguarding responsibilities but all staff and volunteers have a role to play to make cricket safe for all.

All affiliated clubs in Cambridgeshire must have a trained Club Safeguarding Officer, whose role is to ensure that their club is safeguarding and protecting players of all ages, that the club has all appropriate policies in place and that all matters are dealt with in the correct and appropriate manner.  To be a Club Safeguarding Officer you must have attended the Safe Hands workshop training, be current in your Safeguarding in Specialist Roles e-Learning and hold a current DBS certificate.

The following ECB link gives more details of the role responsibilities and training requirements.

Appointing-and-Training-a-Club-Safeguarding-Officer.pdf (ecb.co.uk)

Clubs are also responsible for ensuring that other policies and ECB playing guidelines, such as fast bowling and helmet wearing regulations, are followed by their teams and players to further enhance safeguarding.

Leagues also have safeguarding officers in place to ensure that their clubs are following procedures as they should be. Failure of a club to adhere with their safeguarding responsibilities can lead to them being suspended from playing.