LONDON (Reuters) - The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will train hundreds of school teachers and invest 3.5 million pounds ($4.54 million) into ethnically diverse areas as part of a four-year plan to boost participation, the governing body said on Wednesday.
The ECB aims to support the provision of free cricket in 500 state secondary schools and to 3.5 million children in state primary schools over the next six years, they said in a statement.
"Today’s announcements are the roadmap for where we will take cricket over the course of the next four years," ECB CEO Richard Gould said.
The plan follows recommendations made by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) in its September 2023 report, and will seek to grow the weekly number of children playing cricket by 10%, the ECB added.
The ECB will also build 450 new facilities in urban areas for ethnically diverse communities by 2027, and train thousands to increase the number of its young volunteers by 50% over the next four years.
The England men's team continues to be dominated by players from a privately educated background.
"We have made real, tangible progress in recent years and we are investing more than ever to open the sport to more people," deputy CEO Clare Connor said.
The move comes two days after the Rugby Football Union announced a new limited-contact form of rugby to attract more participation at school level, where both sports are experiencing decline.
($1 = 0.7708 pounds)
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
