This following images and narrative were prepared for a presentation to the Cricket Research Network in February 2025 drawing on results from the Clubs’ Big Survey conducted in October and November 2024. They also inform a 5-page feature The state we’re in: club cricket at a tipping point in the February edition of The Cricketer magazine. It reflects many discussions of the 1,200 Network members and a series of past articles on key current and future challenges for recreational cricket in the UK. The results amplify the narrative with detailed quantitative data.
The survey was completed by 527 individual club representatives
45% are chairs with other senior club officers comprising the rest
The survey required a reasonable overview of all club activities and performance
75% of the clubs are Clubmark accredited – so acknowledged the sample is skewed to the larger theoretically better managed clubs
But Clubmark accreditation is held by around one third of all recreational clubs so participants are still reasonably reflective of the broad diversity in size and shape of all clubs
Most of the respondents have significant experience in their roles, which broadly reflects the complexion of current club leadership.
Contrary to popular perception clubs are generally doing ok or even thriving
It’s important to post this conclusion upfront as we will explore what success means
And the critical success factors emerging from our evidence
And to take a forward looking view
Clubs are generally optimistic
But not complacent and prepared to explore alternative approaches, different solutions and innovation to not just survive but thrive
One footnote; statistical analysis suggests chairs are more optimistic than treasurers in the way literature suggests CEOs tend to be more optimistic than CFOs
Alternative approaches, different solutions and innovation in the face of significant and common challenges
We focused on the most important and so all rated as high but the ones highlighted scored in excess of 75% extremely or very high on a 1-7 Likert Scale
Our 2019 playing numbers survey attracted 997 responses and baselined this issue for this survey
Our 2022 club leaders survey profiled 330 respondents and revealed the typical age, experience and leadership capabilities of club leaders.
It showed a looming crisis with 40% of intending to step down in 1-2 years and 80% in 3-5 years. No idle threat but our evidence suggests perhaps deferred a year or two
We will deal with the funding issue and why it is a more prominent challenge
We wanted to get a picture of how clubs fared through Covid and since?
In 2019 clubs had reported numbers being broadly stable against 5-10 years previously.
As you see most clubs think numbers are now stable or higher than in 2019
They capture the start of what has been an explosion in the number of women and girl cricketers
Recruitment and retention of Adult Men 16+ is, for most clubs, still the bellweather and widely regarded as the toughest of all the tough challenges
There, too, as many clubs reporting numbers up as down and about the same.
So while many sports still struggle to get numbers back to pre-covid levels, cricket looks a positive picture
Looking forward we see a picture of unalloyed optimism in junior boys and women & girls
But clubs perceive it will be a challenge to retain burgeoning numbers of boys at the youngest ages into teens and on into adult cricket
That transition challenge will, no doubt, come to women & girls in time but, for now, the game is riding the wave of growth in both.
So how do those current and predicted numbers of players feed into the number of teams and playing formats?
We know players play less regularly now than historically so more players are needed to get out a team; it’s not uncommon for even premier league teams to field more than 20 players in a season
In the cohort of clubs represented in the survey, there has been a continuing flight to Saturday league cricket for men
Sunday cricket, in particular, is becoming a rarity in large parts of the country.
And friendly cricket is becoming a discrete specialism offering scope for smaller specialist clubs and irregular so-called ‘pop-up’ teams
But the explosion in women & girls playing numbers is reflected in the growing number of teams across the women’s & girls’ offer whether softball or hardball or league and friendly
And looking forward we see optimism in terms of continuing growth in boys and women’s & girls
And consolidation in the number of men’s teams reinforcing the fact that the relationship between growth in player numbers and number of teams is not linear.
We see a big drop in this slide from the last in the number of clubs suggesting women’s and girls’ teams, across formats, are not relevant.
Clubs know that women’s & girls are the big growth area and are ahead of the curve even of ECB’s ambitious recent growth targets
But progress can be patchy and far from linear
And, as we will see, there are significant resource issues
Many will be surprised at clubs reliance on state school pupils at junior level
It betrays the picture of an elite game
And reinforces the view of the ICEC enquiry that – in sociodemographic representation at least – the problem is not at club level.
It explains why the one factor we found with a moderately high statistical significance to a thriving clubs outcome, was the ability of clubs to recruit state school pupils
And the ability of clubs to recruit state school pupils doesn’t necessarily mean the ability to recruit from state schools.
It will surprise many that the data on perceived activity in state schools is as high as it is.
Delving into the issues of what and why is a report of its own
Activity in state schools is down to an unsung army of people with the passion and commitment to make it work………where it works
That’s teachers, club coaches, county board and chance to shine coaches and, often, the earnest lay-person whether club official, parent or non-PE teacher/teaching assistant.
It’s no surprise that club access to state schools is higher in Primary than Secondary.
That’s a function of numbers – 20,000 primaries versus 5,000 secondaries.
And proximity – 13,000 state primaries are less than 15 minutes’ drive time from a local club
Most secondary schools sport is now the province of a professional PE teaching community
Clubs provide big open green spaces with surfaces conducive to playing sport
Opening up facilities to local primary schools – whether weekly sessions or occasional mini-softball tournaments – is a relatively low resource intensity option
Club coaches are generally volunteers with day jobs of their own which is why Chance to Shine is now delivered by an army of county board ‘community coaches’
Clubs try to get involved where they can in order to establish some sort of conveyor belt from schools, embedding the ‘taster’ experience
Direct club activity in schools is still a minority sport.
In secondary schools, the sport focus of the professional PE community is determined by what GCSE content delivery is required
Cricket is seen as too difficult, too uncertain in terms of results and too summer
56% of clubs acknowledge the positive impacts on junior and wider family membership of ECB national programmes like All Stars for 5-8 year-olds.
But the 28% of clubs not participating at all and a further 16% believing it has simply rebranded existing club programmes hints at some not insignificant dissatisfaction given most respondents are Clubmark accredited and will have been under some pressure to participate
That perhaps reflects:
falling participation in recent years (in ECB’s own internal figures)
general dislike of the financial settlement (even after this year’s better club share after the problems with equipment supply)
and growing dissatisfaction with the widely perceived drop off in central marketing
Above all clubs feel they are now doing all the work and reaping little reward. As delivery partners they see little partnership and no sharing of data, with programme changes announced in the universally derided New Year ‘broadcasts’
Clubs have never seen the National Programmes business case and evidence that junior numbers a at 5-8 already in clubs were ever baselined.
Our own estimates at the time suggested 20,000-40,000 5-8 year-olds were already in all Clubmark clubs, so around half the current number. Yes, All Stars has been successful but not to the extent of the hype
Inevitably the Network has a focus on organisational development
We saw earlier that developing new business models is a lower priority challenge.
And that is reflected when looking at how clubs are constituted.
Nearly three-quarters are still unincorporated associations owned and managed by their members without any formalised legal status
But we also see that 25% of the clubs have developed new organizational models and they’re different in different places.
Part of that is about better risk management but it’s also about finding and building new forms of income and attracting new forms of funding from a wider variety of sources.
Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) is a tax not legal status. Unincorporated associations, incorporated clubs and Community Interest Companies can also be CASCs
Over 50% of clubs are CASCs, mainly driven by changes to eligibility for grounds rate relief in the early 2000s so clubs were only guaranteed 80% exemption by registering as a CASC
So the majority of CASCs are clubs owning their freehold or a long-lease. It can save each club several thousands of pounds a year. There are other benefits as we will see.
In return for those benefits, CASC status also creates protections on club assets so that land and other valuable assets cannot simply be disposed of on a decision of club members.
And there are limitations on the amount that can be paied to players of the club – currently £10,000 a year in total – which restricts those clubs playing in semi-professional leagues. It also seeks to ensure that genuine sports clubs qualify by limiting commercial income to £100,000 a year, a figure that has not changed since CASC implementation and now catches many with a thriving social membership.
And, in the event of dissolution, any residual club assets must be transferred to another CASC or charity for the furtherance of cricket (or sport) in the community. Ultimately, those assets could be transferred to a sports governing body or HM Treasury.
the other benefits of CASC status are important for many clubs
The ability to claim Gift Aid on donations uplifts the donation by the standard rate of income tax which can be reclaimed. The donor can also claim any marginal higher rate on their donation incentivising gifts from higher rate taxpayers.
Many grant funders will accept CASCs as eligible organisations for charitable donations because of the ‘asset lock’ implied by CASC status
It is not widely understood that CASC status also enables legacy funding by creating eligibility for Inheritance Tax reliefs on bequests. This could be used in estate planning to reduce overall liability and incentivise a potentially valuable source of club funding. It needs clarification from HMRC and promotion to clubs, potential legators and financial advisers..
This is the biggest challenge of all for a significant number of clubs
Around one third of clubs in our survey have only a relatively short lease or a short rental agreement on their main ground.
Considerably more have the same issue on a second ground or subsidiary site.
They will be negotiating new leases and agreements in the near future if not already.
And clubs with burgeoning junior section and women’s cricket have additional need to find space.
We already know land is becoming far more expensive.
Land prices are going up and landlords are attracting alternative propositions.
That will be exacerbated by the potential for cricket grounds in many areas being redesignated as the new proposed grey belt for category for development.
Many school and municipal grounds that clubs rely on, especially for short terms bookings, are going out of use because of maintenance costs.
And there is more competition for the facilities that remain from non-traditional clubs and irregular ‘pop-up’ teams
Clubs that have yet to start renegotiation are possibly complacent they can continue as they have done
Those on shorter agreements are already finding it more difficult and more expensive
Those anticipating future growth in playing numbers and teams are also foreseeing the pressure on space
It is already a significant brake on growth plans
So investment in facilities is the number one challenge for many clubs
At a time when facilities funding– from Sport England and ECB – becomes scarcer
ECB’s strategic priorities are focused underrepresented communities
Grant funding to clubs from ECB’s Cricket Trust fell from £14m to £7m in its last reported financial year
And interest free loans totalling £1.6 million to 69 clubs means an average of just £23,000 each
Increasing pressure on ground space is only part of the problem
Ground maintenance costs are also rising and are set to accelerate for many clubs
As it stands, a majority of clubs are reliant on volunteer labour to deliver the facilities for play.
But volunteer or largely volunteer ground teams are ageing and replacements increasingly difficult to find
Over 40% of clubs are already making some form of payment for their ground teams
Another 42% are expecting some change in their arrangements in the next 5-10 years and that is unlikely to be from paid to unpaid
Factoring in all costs, the mean spend of our respondents is £15,000 per year
But that’s likely to be conservative; Treasurers put the figure higher than chairs
£1,000 is unlikely to buy you the seed, feed and weed potions you need in a year
At my club, I calculated all fixed and variable costs, including the cost of capital, meaning each adult and junior club game cost £250 with entirely volunteer labour
Add remunerated ground labour, umpire and possibly scorer expenses and you are talking in excess of £500 per game
Which is why local council and schools are finding cricket grounds an unattractive proposition to maintain
And short of charging players more than £50 per game, clubs need to find new and diversified income streams
In the final set of survey questions, we looked at responsibilities for both clubs and ECB
Which were the most important and how well did respondents feel they were performed?
For clubs, that was about creating opportunities to play competitive cricket AND promote wide participation
The data suggests a small but significant percentage of respondents found those two propositions mutually exclusive
And rating community participation extremely high importance gave the highest – although moderate statistically significant – correlation with both current and future ‘ thriving’ outcomes
Whereas an extremely high ‘competitive’ focus gave the lowest correlation with current and future ‘thriving’ outcomes
A focus on developing a viable and sustainable club also, unsurprisingly, had a high correlation with successful outcomes
While those in the community engagement and competitive cricket space both found fun and enjoyment important in their respective terms
Those patterns were reflected in perceived performance
Clubs with a performance orientation performed well. Of course.
Those focused on community engagement saw it as more of a work in progress
It seems fun and enjoyment are easier to deliver all round
While a sustainable club less so
Athough the correlation with anticipated successful outcomes are more positive but nuanced
For most clubs, ECB is a label that incorporates local county boards and equivalents at most times and in most circumstances
Although that may change as we understand county boards are expected to evolve a more devolved proposition, certainly from a funding perspective
Already we see many have become charitable foundations or have a charitable fundraising arm
So when it comes to ECB, the expectations of clubs are universally high
Except in governance and regulation of clubs where there is some divergence of view
And when it comes to performance, ECB scores are generally positive yet below expectations
Considerably in most cases
The outliers are in governance and regulation and, unsurprisingly, in club funding
Performance In governance and regulation actually exceeds expectations.
Which, allied to anecdotal evidence, suggests many clubs consider ECB to overreaching
While, as we have seen, the funding environment becomes an increasingly acute challenge for clubs.
Analysis of the data suggests those scoring ECB performance lowest on funding are those most likely to have current or upcoming need of support.
At a time when there is a widespread perception, and some understanding given the scale, that ECB is simply walking away from the challenge.
The devolving of club responsibilities and accountabilities to county boards and foundations fuels the unease
It is why many feel the recreational game is at a tipping point
