Life-changing Lord's Taverners impact

Much like the efforts of England’s World Cup winners, the UK’s leading youth cricket and disability sports charity, the Lord’s Taverners, made a significant impact on the lives of young people throughout the UK in 2019

The charity’s three national cricket programmes, Wicketz, Super 1s and Table Cricket, have seen nearly 12,000 disadvantaged and disabled young people benefit from playing the game regularly in 2019.

There was significant growth across the board with the three programmes seeing participation increases of 19 per cent, 24 per cent and 10 per cent respectively on the previous year.

More than 31,000 items of kit and equipment have also been sent to projects in the UK and overseas through the Sports Kit Recycling scheme. Donations have been made to 20 countries across four continents including youth teams in England, girls’ cricket projects in Brazil, refugee support programmes in Greece and newly-formed cricket programmes in Mongolia.

All of the charity’s programmes aim to help disadvantaged and disabled young people by enabling them to be a part of something positive, providing them with vital life skills, creating environments to improve communication, teamwork and leadership skills, and bringing communities together.

Super Leanne

We have seen numerous examples over the past 12 months that illustrate just some of the lifechanging impact cricket is having and few highlight that better than Leanne Tansley.

Leanne, who was born without a left arm and lives with ADHD, struggled with her attendance and grades at school three years ago.

But once she discovered cricket through Super 1s she found a goal, something that makes her happy and keen to succeed.

^{Leanne is thriving as part of the Super 1s programme}

Now, she can’t wait for Super 1s sessions every week and shows great determination to improve all aspects of her cricket and fitness. Her new-found confidence and drive have helped her outside of cricket too, as she’s replicating the hard work and enthusiasm put into her cricket in the classroom. Her discipline, attendance and grades have all improved and her attitude is exceptional.

“I’ve gone from being someone who got poor grades to being a distinction student where teachers use my work as an example to others,” she says.

As well as taking on a leadership role for her Newham team she has admirably taken on an integral role with the college’s ‘Here Come the Girls’ ambassadors with responsibilities including promoting females in sport and planning fundraising events.

Super 1s has certainly had a positive effect on Leanne’s life on and off the field and to cap it all off, she received an award at the Super 1s 2019 finals at Lord’s from Shane Warne.

Wicketz thriving in Glasgow

Free community cricket programme Wicketz brings individuals and communities together in deprived areas across the UK.

Cricket may not traditionally have a strong foothold in deprived areas of Glasgow, but sport has the power not only to change lives but change perceptions along the way.

Wicketz was introduced to Glasgow in 2018 at a newly formed hub in Springburn, north Glasgow. Eighteen months on and Wicketz now consists of three hubs in different parts of Glasgow and is thriving. In addition to the Springburn hub, Wicketz now takes place in Govanhill and Pollokshields every week with more than 160 participants registered on the programme across the three hubs.

The programme is uniting young people from different races and religions, bringing communities together and the success of the Springburn hub embodies this with young people of 11 nationalities, including members of the refugee community, engaging through cricket.

Glasgow Wicketz development officer Nauman Javaid says: “The need for Wicketz here is humungous. These kids don’t have any opportunities, anywhere. Before we started Wicketz I used to see the same kids who attend our sessions standing about in the streets in groups of five throwing bricks. Now I see them playing cricket in the local park.

“It’s not just about cricket, though. These kids love to play but we also run workshops about issues they are facing in the community, on issues such as drugs, alcohol, gangs and street crime. We look at the negative effects of getting involved in the wrong things, and the positive effects of being involved in sport. And the kids have responded really well.

“Our sessions are very diverse culturally. We have kids from China, Italy, Japan and Somalia. We are using cricket as a tool for social inclusion and I think Wicketz has really succeeded in that.”

Three communities and hundreds of young people are benefiting from the introduction of Wicketz in Glasgow already and, as one participant said, “it’s helped me get closer to people and it makes us one big cricket family.”

For more information about the Lord's Taverners, or if you would like to get involved, please visit www.lordstaverners.org