The Lord’s Taverners today announced the publication of innovative new resources aimed at enabling more young people with disabilities to enjoy the benefits of playing cricket.
The news comes as the England visually impaired team play against the old rivals, Australia, today in the Blind Cricket World Cup in South Africa.
A comprehensive downloadable guide and six coaching videos have been developed in partnership with the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) to support coaches and volunteers new to working with and coaching people with a disability.
The UK’s leading youth cricket and disability sports charity is supporting the ECB’s National Disability Programme by providing specially-adapted equipment and online resources.
The Lord’s Taverners will continue to develop further resources for all levels disability over the next three years.
Earlier this year, the charity launched the Lord’s Taverners Disability Cricket Championships (LTDCC), aimed at engaging over 1,000 disabled people aged 14-25 with a limiting disability by providing access to regular coaching and competition in communities across London.
The programme is delivered by the charity in partnership with the County Cricket Boards of Essex, Kent, Middlesex and Surrey, with support from Interactive – the initiative to help achieve disability equality in sport.
The LTDCC is being run in partnership with the Berkeley Foundation – the charity arm of the Berkeley Group – for the next three years, with additional support from the Wembley National Stadium Trust and Sport England.
Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brent, cricket programmes manager at the Lord’s Taverners, said: “With the Lord’s Taverners Disability Cricket Competition an already thriving competition, the appetite for disability cricket is abundant. We now need to increase and improve the framework not just in London but across the UK and I hope these resources go some way to doing just that.”
The disability cricket resources are available on the Lord’s Taverners website.