LCB achieve ECB Targets for 2010-11

The Lancashire Cricket Board (LCB) has met its England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Targets for the fifth year in a row setting new records.

This involves a huge amount of work by the Board, staff, volunteers within clubs and support from our partners including the County Sport Partnerships of Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside, all 27 local authorities and Lancashire County Cricket Club itself.

Andrew Hayhurst (Director or the LCB) commented: "The biggest thanks must go to our Cricket Development Managers (CDMs) and Cricket Support Officers (CSOs) for their commitment to the completion of this planning process and the huge task of ensuring that all these figures are accurate and signed off.

"I must also thank all our Focus Clubs who have provided and ratified this information. Although they do benefit from officer time, direct funding and in a lot of cases, new facilities, it is a rigorous process to go through during a busy cricket season and we are always grateful for that. On a personal note, I must thank all our staff and those colleagues employed by our partners, who continue do a great job. Our partners themselves, particularly the 3 County Sports Partnerships of Lancashire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester are very supportive and not least our own Board for their continued help and guidance."

The measurement of Participation, Club Accreditation, Club Membership, Coaching and Volunteer roles is an ongoing process which has produced the following results:

This means that within the 122 Focus Club clusters involved in this process, nearly 50,000 people play cricket and there have been significant increases in qualified coaches, members and those prepared to volunteer. Set against the fact that there are nearly another 300 clubs affiliated that actively participated in cricket during the 2011 season, it is safe to say that over 60,000 are heavily involved. Over 15,000 of these are girls.

This does not happen by accident and since 2006, participation has risen by over 35,000 and there are now more than 6,000 extra club members. This is due to the work of the staff recruited over this period.

Added to this, £3.4 million has been invested via the LCB into Focus Clubs for facilities. This is a remarkable achievement and has provided clubs with new pavilions, changing rooms, net areas and pitches. Total project costs here exceed £5 million.

Each year (by October 31st), the LCB, like all 39 County Cricket Boards, are charged with the task of meeting these targets based on PARTICIPATION, CLUBMARK ACCREDITATION, CLUB MEMBERSHIP, COACHES AND VOLUNTEERS to enable funding to be released as part of the national framework for developing cricket.

The bottom line is quite simple. Without this work, the LCB would not be sufficiently funded to carry out any of its main development activity and it is worth, with match funding, over £1m.

Although the LCB are fully aware that the game of cricket is not all about figures and that it is important that all aspects of the game are supported, this does take up a large part of CDM, CSO and other staff time during the summer months as an absolute priority. Therefore, it is very commendable that they carry out the rest of their duties when this is so important to the Board. These figures are even more remarkable when you consider that they represent roughly a quarter of our clubs. Our coaches are active in at least as many schools again not to mention the elite side of the game through our partnership with Lancashire County Cricket Club (LCCC).

This said, the LCB is now delighted that over a sustained period, a significant difference to the cricket landscape for the positive has taken place in Lancashire. We continue to try and find some "crackerjack" players to be handed over to the elite coaches in the Academy and beyond and to this end the comprehensive review of the Excellence system in conjunction with ECB is ongoing. 2011 saw the Lancashire County Cricket Club win the LV= County Championship for the first time in 77 years. We hope to continue to find players for the future that will emulate this achievement on many occasions to come.

There are still some uncertain times ahead with widespread cuts across the public sector, but the LCB faced a much bleaker prospect 10 years ago when it was not clear where the next penny was coming from and there was activity budget of less than £50k!