2022 ANNUAL REPORT

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE COUNTY CRICKET CLUB 2022 ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 58 better understanding of the barriers people had faced, and to deliver increased impetus to address them. The club was in the process of gathering an empirical understand- ing of what its playing, staff and volunteer workforce looked like demographically, as well as reaching out to individuals across the network, and reconnecting with past players, to learn more about their experiences. Ms Pursehouse believed that this would enable the club to foster better understanding and lead to tangible and meaningful action. For the club’s community and development team, work was ongoing across Nottinghamshire to ensure that recreational cricket was accessible to all people regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, disability or socio-economic background. Ms Pursehouse also stated that the club’s charity, theTrent Bridge CommunityTrust, was continually expanding its outreach programmes, providing support to those in need within our communities. Not only were these teams tasked with delivering inclusivity within their programmes, but also with gathering insight from within communities that might previously have been difficult to reach, assisting the club in evolving how it would engage with them in the future. The Chief Executive went on to state that, as the make-up of cricket’s audience diversified, it would be incumbent upon the game to provide enriching experiences tailored to differing needs; from accessible seating, alcohol-tolerant family areas and alcohol-free zones to food and drink offerings for all faiths and cultures. This would impact upon future decision-making in relation to ground development and facilities, but also the way in which the ground would be managed on each matchday, with segmentation of the venue to provide members and spectators with choice regarding the type of experience they wished to enjoy. The club’s ability to deliver variation of this kind would be dependent, not only upon the development and management of the venue, but also upon staff and volunteers. Ms Pursehouse stated that stewards and catering teams were the meet and greet friendly face of Trent Bridge. Following a gap of more than two years, the task of re-engaging this critical workforce, in a disrupted labour market, remained one of the most difficult yet rewarding challenges. Ms Pursehouse stated that the club would look to restore its permanent staff headcount in the right areas, as well as providing the requisite security, flexibility and work/life balance to further the club’s ability to attract and retain the best possible talent with a view to creating new commer- cial opportunities and growing the game in the county. The volume of match days and related preparations had led to significant pressures upon the club’s cricket operations function as it sought to ensure that the club offered the right practice and playing surfaces for all teams that now calledTrent Bridge home. The club’s ambitious plans to compete in all three formats of the game and deliver sustained success came with the requirement to support the needs of the professional squad as they strived for higher levels of performance, so they could achieve their ambitions and Not- tinghamshire could contribute to the rebuilding of Team England in Test Match cricket. Ms Pursehouse explained that the club’s commitment to developing local young players through its age- group squads and Academy, and to growing participation and building a pathway for girls too, meant that the demands upon indoor facilities and Lady Bay were increasing significantly. She stated that the club must ensure that Trent Bridge could become a home venue for our daughters and sisters as well as for our brothers and sons. In the recreational game, Ms Purse- house explained that the need for facilities to support the growth of cricket was becoming a major challenge. For example, of the 16 clubs based in the city – Notting- hamshire’s largest and most ethnically diverse conurbation – nine were nomadic teams who all played their cricket outside of the city boundaries. In the north of the county – where passion for the game remained strong but levels of social deprivation remained high – there was a need to be creative and build cricket-led programmes that would help tackle these issues and would be accessible for those communities. Ms Pursehouse said that the challenges associated with managing the vast spectrum of competing cricketing, experiential, societal and financial considerations remained. With the cost of living increasing, minimum wage and National Insurance contributions rising and energy prices at an unprecedented high, the task of navigating a path through the myriad of competing and conflicting priorities facing the club, venue and wider game was growing daily. Like all individuals and organisa- tions, the club’s cost base and the need for further borrowing would increase as it took steps to ensure its long-term future as a club and venue and maintain investment in growing the game at grassroots level. Ms Pursehouse assured the meeting that this would not be easy. It would need to take place against a backdrop of societal discord and polarised views and amongst the fractured connections that had been caused or exaggerated by two years of Covid disruption and by the volatile political and media landscape. She had 30 years of experience in cricket, but would admit that right now she did not have all of the answers, as the club sought to rebuild and the game remained under such intense scrutiny. Ms Pursehouse did, however, take significant reassurance from the fact that cricket had historically