England Captain caps off year of success for Kent’s disability programme
As 2013 draws to a close, disability cricket in Kent looks back on a successful year where participation in the game has increased under the work of the Kent Cricket Board.
Approximately 20% of the nation’s population is disabled people, which makes providing sporting opportunities a significant priority in the Kent Cricket Board’s aim of creating inclusive communities across the ‘Garden of England’.
The highlight of the year came in October when England Captain, Alastair Cook, presented a prestigious national award to Riverside Special Needs School in Bromley. Recognition was given through Chance to Shine, the country’s largest sporting initiative, to how the school and their disabled pupils embraced ‘MCC’s Spirit of Cricket’ showing fantastic spirit, respect and fair play. Cricket was used to develop key life and social skills which are vitally important for disabled children.
Kent now have two established County teams which cater for players with either a visual, learning or physical impairment. These teams play representative cricket throughout the year against other counties and in September the Kent Visually Impaired team were runners-up in ECB’s Blind Cricket Development event where eight counties competed. Kent receives valuable support from the Primary Club and are keen to go one better next year.
Further recognition for players is available with an elite pathway put in place by ECB to enable talented cricketers to progress to represent England. Kent’s Visually Impaired Captain, Rob Comber, is part of the England VI squad, and Kent also have two players with learning and physical impairments who have been selected for ECB’s pioneering Disability Cricket Regional Talent centre’s.
These successes ensure the programme continues to make progress, but the core focus remains providing opportunities for everyone to play the game. This is achieved through collaborative working with education and healthcare sectors, but also building partnerships with bodies such as Sport England, English Federation of Disability Sport, national disability organisations, or local authorities and leisure trusts. Valuable support and guidance in the development of disability plans is received from Kent Sport and Interactive, and partnership working with Lords Taverners is underway to pioneer the new London Disability Cricket Championships.
Looking ahead to 2014 there will be more coaching provided for special needs schools and disability organisations. Initiatives will also be rolled out to reach children and young adults with impairments that are within the mainstream system or further education. This includes for the first time a pilot programme for children with hearing impairments. Other exciting events include regional and county wide competitions for special needs schools, and a ‘Disability fun day’. This will take place on 10th July 2014 at the Spitfire Ground St Lawrence in Canterbury where the gates are open for all children and adults to come and participate in fun games and skill zones.
There will also be an increased emphasis on educating volunteers and coaches. Raising awareness of disability sport by providing support resources for coaches to access and running ECB’s new Disability and Inclusion training course are two initiatives that will be implemented.
For the first time in 2014 Kent will have two Disability County teams competing in ECB’s national leagues, and the opportunity to play for your county is there for players with learning, physical or visual impairments. Preparations for the new season are underway and the teams are excited about the challenge of competing against other counties for silverware.
The message is simple, cricket is a game which everyone with an impairment can participate in either through adapted formats of the game, table cricket, using fun Cricket Factory equipment, or at an elite performance level.
