Junior Cricket Proposal

Hampshire Cricket Board (HCB), in partnership with New Forest Junior Cricket Association, North Hants Cricket Development Association, South East Hants Cricket Association and Winchester Warriors Junior Cricket Association are looking at the future of junior club cricket within the county.

The current landscape of volunteer led committees has served junior cricket successfully, with enormous credit to all involved but there are concerns for the sustainability of this structure in the coming years. We have seen a move, across the country, away from a volunteer workforce to a professional and centralised management committee. In all cases these moves are not designed to fix something that is broken but to future proof junior cricket. 

Having discussed the future prospects at length with each district committee we have jointly put together the following proposal for junior club cricket in Hampshire.

HCB and the junior districts propose that all junior club cricket should be played under a county wide Junior Cricket Championship from April 2024. The new competition would encompass all leagues (mixed & girls) currently in existence from U9 to U17 across the county. The competition would be administered by a HCB management committee, containing representatives from the four existing district committees, and would see clubs continue to play in localised leagues. 

The potential benefits for such a move include:

• Sustainability - Reduced reliance on a small pool of volunteers

• Consistency - Opportunity to unify formats & rules across the county

• Scale - Opportunity to negotiate cost reducing deals on balls, equipment & clothing

• Speed of action - Early fixture production & quick reaction to consultation

• Commercial - A single Hampshire league may attract a large headline sponsor minimising costs for clubs and players/parents 

• Expansion - Look for continued opportunities to increase the number of children playing cricket in Hampshire

Feedback from early consultation has bought up a few common questions:

Q - Will there be a loss of local knowledge? Would centralised management mean less local engagement?

A - We will work to counter this by bringing the local knowledge into the new management committee. There will be at least one representative from each existing district on the new committee.

Q - Rules; How would the complex individual rules from four districts be bought together for one county wide league?

A - We would look to engage with all existing rules committees and work together to form a uniformed set of basic rules. We can then add local variances to a match day menu.

Q - Age group playing days; Would all age group games need to take place on the same day across the county?

A - No, age group games would still be played on different days across the county. We would ask clubs upon entry to nominate their favoured playing day for each age group and then form the leagues and fixtures from this.

Q - Is it possible or likely that clubs would be in a slightly different pool of clubs or will leagues and fixtures align with existing district? 

A - Yes, this is possible. We hope that clubs would play those closest to them, especially at 'B' & 'C' team level. 'A' team players may wish to travel slightly further to play higher quality teams but this would be still regionalised. We can start with a blank sheet of paper geographically so hope clubs would play those closest to them. All of this would be decided once we have team entries and leagues would be devised at that point.

Q - Might there be potential for a central district as in the HCL?

A - Yes, certainly. There could be up to 8 regional leagues but this is all to be decided once team entries come in.

Q - With 200 juniors one of our concerns over the last 2-3 years is the initiative towards smaller team sizes, the additional pressure this puts on pitch availability and volunteers to support the increased matches and therefore in fact having the reverse desired impact for offering more cricket. Would this move mean less localised decision making and an "enforced" move to smaller team sizes ?

A - Formats, including team size, would be decided through consultation with all clubs and research into the best playing set up for players and clubs. We have had enough games played in the new guidelines of smaller teams since 2019 to study the evidence and get feedback from all involved. Surrey play with slightly bigger team numbers and have compromised on the ECB guidelines so that is a possibility for Hampshire as well. 

Q - Many clubs only start indoor training in January, so asking for team entries in November risks a lot of chopping and changing potentially after the fixtures have been released as clubs pull out of leagues or try to enter a team in a different league. Introducing something like a fine for doing so would be unfair as it is really difficult to predict player numbers even with the best will in the world.

A - The timeline for entries will be decided by the clubs, and we will respond to their demands through consultation. 

Further detail and context can be viewed below in the Club Presentation. There is also the opportunity to ask questions and add comments via the Club Questions form. 

Next steps;

• If possible please discuss within your club committee and members ahead of District AGMs 

• Opportunity for all clubs and volunteers to submit questions via Club Questions form above

• HCB & district committees to present at upcoming AGMs, where an idicative club vote on the proposal will take place

• At this stage this is just a proposal and would need approval from clubs

• If clubs are in favour, meeting the constitutional voting requirements of each individual district, a transition process would commence leading to a launch date of April 2024

• If clubs are not in favour of the proposal, as per district constitution, the current landscape will continue in 2024 and onwards

For further information please contact Rob Pfeiffer