Lancashire County Cricket Club. A large building with two brick pillars, and a glass wall between with the main entrance. Above the doors is a sign with a red rose that says 'Welcome to Old Trafford Home, Home of the Lancashire County Cricket Club.'

Cricket: ACE programme announces trial days for 2024

News | 31st October 2024

By James Ibbotson

Featured image credit: Parrot of Doom, Wikipedia Commons

Lancashire Cricket is gearing up to host its ACE Academy trials on 24th November, which aims to give more opportunities to aspiring Black cricketers within Manchester and Lancashire.

The trials are scheduled to take place at the Emirates Old Trafford Indoor Centre, and are open to anyone of Caribbean and African heritage aged 9 to 21.

The African-Caribbean Engagement programme is an independent charity that aims to support underrepresented talent throughout cricket, from the grassroots to the elite level.

ACE Programme advertisement | Credit: ACE Academy Instagram

The charity also aims to improve African Caribbean engagement at a grassroots level. Currently, less than 1% of people with African Caribbean heritage in Britain play cricket at a recreational level.

Daily Mirror Journalist Dean Wilson feels that carelessness from administrators has played a part in the decrease of Black British Cricketers. Speaking to Sky Sports in 2021, he said: “It is not a simple story.

“Clearly, the reduction of cricket in schools and urban areas plays a big part [in the decrease of Black British cricketers], as that is where the Black population is at its greatest.

A white man and a young brown girl are in the middle of the picture, standing on grass with trees, foliage, and a brick wall in the background. The man is standing with his arms folded and facing directly into the camera, wearing a black cricket jersey with red sleeves and black trousers. there is a black cricket wick in front of him. Next to the wick, the girl stands on one leg throwing a white cricket ball. Her hair is tied back into a ponytail and she wears a black cricket jumpsuit. — A girl practicing cricket with ACE Academy | Credit: Number 10, Flickr

Grassroots

“The love and passion the Caribbean community had for the game, it was just taken for granted that it would always be there.

“Actually, if you don’t do anything to support it and feed it, you end up where we are today. I think it is a problem that has arisen from a lack of action. A carelessness, actually.”

The ACE schools programme is set up to reverse this lack of grassroots engagement. By providing free cricket sessions to local state schools, they give a basic introduction to cricket.

On the ACE programme website, it states: “We are able to filter players into our local community hubs as well as established clubs for more sessions and coaching opportunities […] we can also filter talented players into the Academy for those we believe would be able to thrive and realise their full potential in that environment”