A cricket programme designed to empower women from South Asian backgrounds to get involved in coaching has been recognised for its outstanding contribution to community sport.

The Cities Programme, which is laid on by the England and Wales Cricket Board with Nottingham as one of its seven conurbations, emerged with a gong from the recent UK Coaching Awards.

Hina Mistry, part of the team that delivers the initiative, has given her reaction to taking the Transforming Coaching Award and given an insight into how the Cities Programme has inspired a love of cricket in hundreds of women.

“Someone said to one of my colleagues, ‘if you can do cricket, then I can do cricket’. That’s just changed my perception.”

Perception is key for Hina Mistry. Challenging people’s perceptions of cricket as a somewhat staid, old-fashioned sport – and of the kinds of people to whom the sport is best suited.

Hina is part of the ECB’s Cities Programme Team, whose aim is to recruit 2,000 South Asian volunteers across seven cities – including Nottingham.

It’s a project which has taken home the Transforming Coaching Award at the UK Coaching Awards.

“It was crazy enough to find out we’d been shortlisted – after such a challenging year, that was a phenomenal achievement,” she recalled.

“To find out we’d won was amazing. It was a virtual awards ceremony, so we were all taking part from our own homes, but our WhatsApp group was going crazy with messages!

“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet, but winning that award was certainly the high point of the year.”

The award win, in a ceremony which also honoured the likes of Marcus Rashford for their achievements in the past 12 months, was the latest milestone for a project which has made significant headway since being established in 2019.

“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet, but winning that award was certainly the high point of the year.”

Hina Mistry

“In the first year, we managed to recruit 549 South Asian volunteers, and we had so many plans for how we would increase that in 2020,” said Hina.

“At times, it felt like every time we set out to plan something, lockdown would come back, but we still managed to tailor-make our projects to the circumstances we found ourselves in.

“The key question really this year was: how do we keep those 549 women engaged?

“We put on online training, held regular virtual catch-ups, and just made sure they felt part of a community.

“And we were able to recruit more people as well, through things like the Dream Big Desi Women project, the Community Champion scheme, and in the activities we were able to put on around Women’s Cricket Month.

“A lot of women up and down the UK were able to take part in Softball tournaments in their area as well, and a couple of my colleagues managed to get All Stars up and running for a few sessions. They made for nice bits of normality in a strange year.”

With a healthy momentum developing, the Community Champion initiative is designed to provide a snowball effect.

The lack of role models has long been identified as a barrier to engaging more diverse communities in cricket.

With over 500 South Asian women now on hand to be those role models, the picture is changing somewhat.

“Our project is about inspiring women like myself and their families, who maybe can’t see themselves in posters and campaigns,” said Hina.

“Our community champions are women that have taken part in our project before, and are our advocates.

 

 

“If you wanted to volunteer for something, you’d want to talk to those who are volunteering already about what it’s like, because they’ll answer your questions truthfully.

“That’s what being a Community Champion is all about – and helping to inspire other women to follow their example.”

The work undertaken by the Cities Programme team follows on from the success of the Haydn Road Community Cricket Club, which began offering inner-city cricket activities in 2019.

Both projects have a deep understanding of their target audience at their core – and an appreciation of what needs to change to get them on board.

“We need to change perceptions to make people believe that cricket is a game for them,” said Hina.

“And it’s really important to be flexible as well. The women we are looking to reach have other roles in their lives – they’re mums, they have jobs – so it’s not always that easy for them to give up their time.

“We changed our training programmes so that they ran over weekends and evenings, and we set up in the heart of South Asian communities – in settings like faith centres and community locations where we knew these women would be, and would feel safe.

“We also changed the apparel that was available, with longer t-shirts, baggier clothes and hijabs available. That was another big barrier that needed to be eliminated.

“All the ladies that we encounter are very inspiring – they want to be a role model for their daughter, their niece and the other children in their community.

“But what’s interesting is, when we speak to them after six months or so of volunteering, just how much they get out of it themselves.

“They become part of a network, and they’re making friends.”

“Our project is about inspiring women like myself and their families, who maybe can’t see themselves in posters and campaigns.”

Hina Mistry

For all across cricket, 2020 was meant to be the year to harness the momentum generated by England’s World Cup win.

All Stars cricket was to return for 5-8-year-olds, the new Dynamos programme was set to pick up the baton for older children, and plans for the launch of The Hundred were almost complete.

While All Stars was able to return in some settings, the pause button was pressed on the latter two initiatives. But Hina is confident that 2021 can be a success, regardless of the challenges that may be around the corner.

“Having gone through 2020, we now have all the contingencies in place,” she said.

“We’re planning for a normal year next year, but we’re prepared if events outside our control change that.

“We want to pioneer everything that we originally had planned for 2020, and get more women involved in the game.

“Hopefully, with the number of women we’ve already reached and with awards like this behind us, we can amplify our project and inspire even more people."

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