ACE Programme to launch Bristol partnership during England-New Zealand women's ODI

The association with Gloucestershire sees ACE reach its third county, having been founded by Surrey in January 2020 and then taken into Warwickshire

The African Caribbean Engagement programme (ACE) is to expand into Bristol after securing £100,000 in funding from Royal London.

The partnership with Gloucestershire, which will be officially launched on Thursday when England face New Zealand at Bristol in the first of five women’s ODIs, sees ACE reach its third county, having been founded by Surrey in January 2020 and then taken into Warwickshire. Manchester and Nottingham are among the next cities that the initiative hopes to target.

The organisation, which became an independent charity a year ago after receiving £540,000 in financial support from Sport England and a grant from the ECB, was set up by Ebony Rainford-Brent – the first black woman to represent England – in response to a decline of black professional players by 75 per cent in recent years.

Rainford-Brent, who acts as ACE’s chair, said: “Being able to provide pathways to support young, talented cricketers is essential if we are to develop more elite cricketers from black communities.

“Funding like this is helping to empower a new generation of players that otherwise may not have been involved. We are grateful to Royal London for helping us on our mission to inspire the wider game to become more representative of society.”

She told The Cricketer last October: “If, in 20 years – as a result of what the ACE programme does – we’re seeing more kids interested in the game coming through and you see that visually, that will mean more to me than anything. I’d cry for days.”

According to research carried out by Thomas Fletcher at Leeds Beckett University, the number of black non-overseas players in men’s county cricket fell from 33 to nine in the 25 years between 1994 and 2019. There were just three in the domestic women’s game in 2019.

Since ACE received backing from Sport England, 200 young people have attended trials, with 65 scholarships awarded, while also seeing the launch of an academy.

^{Gloucestershire are the third county to partner with the ACE Programme}

Thursday’s women’s ODI at Bristol will be called the ‘Royal London x ACE One Day International’, with 40 youngsters from the ECB’s Dynamo programme at Bristol West Indian Phoenix CC playing on the outfield during the innings interval.

Gloucestershire’s assistant coach is Mark Alleyne, the county’s most decorated player. He made almost 750 appearances for Gloucestershire Cricket across all forms and captained the club to seven limited-overs titles, as well as a County Championship promotion, between 1999 and 2004.

He was also the club’s head coach between 2004 and 2008, and remains the most recent black man – and only the third in history after Derief Taylor and John Shepherd – to have held the head coaching role at a men’s first-class county.

“That’s a stat I don’t think any of us are proud of,” he told The Cricketer in June. “You need to create an environment where these guys will go and get their badges, knowing full well that they might get an opportunity to coach.”

On ACE, he added: “We want to tap into the catchment of young black cricketers in Bristol through the programme, and then target those who have not aspired to play the game for reasons such as a lack of representation. We are trying to tackle that and move forward, which is a positive thing.

“The aim is to reignite the passion to play the game in the city; the ACE programme has a real opportunity to capture young kids and their parents to encourage them to come and play. We want families and young cricketers to enjoy playing cricket and it would be great if we could increase the catchment of players the club can select from in the county.”

Gloucestershire Cricket Board have appointed Theo Gordon as its first ACE development officer, with around 30 schools set to take part in the grassroots programmes. At least 400 young black cricketers will benefit from the scheme’s development and performance opportunities.