Essex Cricket speaks at our sports forum this month
Essex Cricket's Head of Operations, Dan Feist, will be speaking at our sports regeneration discussions this month in London, about its partnership with the London Borough of Newham to drive interest and talent in the game.
Newham Council wants the borough to be the cricket capital of East London by 2020 and is offering residents the chance to apply for free tickets to every day of the Specsavers County Champtionship and Royal London One-Day Cup games, through its partnership with Essex Cricket. Over 800 tickets will be available and over 1,000 residents have already attended games after receiving tickets.
Dan commented: 'The partnership with Newham Council is a great opportunity to further develop cricket in the area. It will encourage more people to become actively involved with the sport and will give the next generation of both male and female players the opportunity to reach their potential'.
The partnership has already seen £200,000 invested in new facilities across Newham, with over 10,000 residents getting involved with festivals and events. Cricket is already popular in the borough with high levels of women playing the game and a number of well-established cricket clubs producing some promising young players.
The work will help inspire young people to follow in the footsteps of local cricketing stars like England and Essex all-rounder Ravi Bopara from Forest Gate and Saba Nasim, who took up cricket while at Plashet School in East Ham. She received the British Empire Medla in the Queen's New Year's Honours this year for her commitment to coaching women and girls in cricket.
Essex batsman Feroze Khushi added ' Having been brought up in East London and having attended sessions in the area, I have seen the passion for the game. Hopefully, we can now work in partnership to produce the next wave of top-quality cricketers.'