Kids Go Free For Hampshire’s Season Openers
Kids go free across the Easter weekend (3–6 April) as Hampshire host Essex in the Rothesay County Championship, with the same offer available for Hampshire Women’s season opener on 11 April.
Hampshire Cricket and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will be celebrating Rainbow Laces alongside Stonewall from July 30-August 1.
It's the fourth year the game has come together to celebrate LGBTQ+ inclusion in cricket, and this year the activity will take in the Royal London One-Day Cup and The Hundred - with The Hundred matches live on Sky Sports and the BBC.
Earlier this year the ECB supported what was believed to be the first fully inclusive LGBTQ+ game of cricket - between Graces CC and Unicorns CC - and in September the business will be represented in the march at London Pride.
I'm proud to see our game standing squarely behind inclusion. We're driven by our desire to open up the game to as many people as possible. We want cricket to be a game for everyone and we want the LGBTQ+ community to both feel welcome and able to be themselves in our sport.
Tom Harrison, ECB Chief Executive Officer
The rainbow laces and the rainbow stumps are a powerful symbol of support, and it's good to see the players and the wider game reaffirming our desire to be a sport that everyone feels they can be involved in.
Wearing laces is only a little thing - and it might not feel like much - but the fact that sport in England and Wales is so proud to stand alongside the LGBTQ+ community these days is such a huge step in the right direction.
Lauren Winfield-Hill
Too many kids grow up thinking they can't really be themselves if they want to succeed in sport, and it leads to people not being honest and not being themselves. A weekend like Rainbow Laces is about saying to those people, you can be yourself and be a sportsperson. Cricket really should be for everyone and hopefully this weekend will help us continue that journey.
To find out more about Rainbow Laces, please visit www.stonewall.org.uk.
Kids go free across the Easter weekend (3–6 April) as Hampshire host Essex in the Rothesay County Championship, with the same offer available for Hampshire Women’s season opener on 11 April.
24-year-old fast bowler Jayden Seales joins Hampshire for the opening block of the Rothesay County Championship
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