Empowering young people through cricket

The Lord’s Taverners is the UK’s leading youth cricket and disability sports charity. The charity works across the UK and beyond to ensure that disadvantaged and disabled young people have access to free sport and all the benefits it can bring.

Through their four cricket programmes - Super 1s, Table Cricket, Wicketz, and Sports Kit Recycling - the charity breaks down barriers and empowers disadvantaged and disabled young people to fulfil their potential and build life skills.

The charity’s mission is to create opportunities for disadvantaged and disabled young people to fulfil their potential and positively impact their communities by:

• Increasing opportunities for regular participation
• Improving health, mental wellbeing and future prospects of participants
• Strengthening community and social cohesion
• Developing a network of volunteers, coaches and role models

Players of People’s Postcode Lottery have raised over £4.1 million for the charity since 2015, enabling it to expand its life changing cricket programmes, providing access to cricket for more disadvantaged and disabled young people than ever before and all the personal development opportunities that come with that.

Wicketz is about improving the prospects of disadvantaged young people and providing them with the skills they need to thrive and fulfil their potential through cricket.

Since Covid restrictions have eased, Wicketz has been using cricket as a tool to reconnect the young people who attend the programme with their local communities across the country. The programme is about much more than getting young people to play cricket – it provides wider opportunities for participants to develop a long-term understanding of their own wellbeing, improve their overall quality of life and develop social and personal skills such as confidence, resilience, respect, teamwork and leadership. All skills that are more important than ever in the current circumstances.

Coming out of lockdown, mental health has been seen as a key issue for the young people the programme supports, and the NHS Foundation attended the day to offer support and advice to participants and their parents.

Bedfordshire Police and their chief inspector were also on hand to engage with participants and views Wicketz as a key part of their community work: "We’re part of the community and the community is a part of everything we do. Sport gets them active and allows them to get to know others in the community too.

"Events like this are really important and for us at Bedfordshire Police and it’s key that we’re an integral part of it."

As restrictions continue to ease, the charity plans to offer even more opportunities like these across the Wicketz programme.