Lancashire Cricket Foundation Team Play in Inter League for first time in 2024!
Lancashire Cricket Foundation is pleased to announce for 2024 there will be additional teams in the Inter League - giving opportunities to young people who may have faced barriers to accessing the programme previously.
Inter League Cricket is the opportunity for children and young people to represent their clubs league against other leagues from across Lancashire. The tournament has been running successfully for the last three seasons. It has supported players to challenge themselves in a competitive environment, give opportunities to compete against their peers and access to the next step on their players journey.
There will be places for players from across non-club programmes, this will include ACE (African Caribbean Engagement), Chance to Shine Street, MCC Foundation Hubs and Lords Taverners Wicketz, and also from within recreational cricket when a player is brought to LCF’s attention from across the network but not had the chance to compete at Inter League level. The team will focus on two age groups, Under 12 and Under 14 for boys and U14 for girls.
Ammar Ashraf, Urban Cricket Manager, said: “We are very excited to be able to provide this opportunity as a further commitment to opening the pathway for everyone across Lancashire, playing cricket at a club is not everyone’s starting point and we need to provide a number of entry points, throughout the player journey to offer opportunities to showcase potential and talents.
The Foundation teams, will be coached by LCF team members, with the knowledge of the Inter League programme and also the programmes these players are representing.
Jameel Stuart ACE CDO said: ‘This opportunity will be great for the ACE Programme as it gives the players who are a part of our academy the chance to compete at a high level against other interleague teams to put into practice what they would have worked on over the winter in our Academy Sessions. An initiative like this gives players of African and Caribbean heritage a chance they would have missed out on in the past. The players are really excited about this opportunity.’
Urban Programme Coaches have nominated young people who they think would benefit from the opportunity and observation and training sessions for all players nominated take part in early May. An online information session for parents and guardians is planned, before the squads are finalised ahead of the first fixtures at the end of May.
Commenting on the opportunity Wicketz Activator, Will Radcliffe, said: ‘ This is a great opportunity for our Wicketz participants to showcase their talents and compete against other interleague teams in a competitive environment.
Our pathway for all gives every child across our non-traditional programmes the chance to represent and be part of the county age programmes for Lancashire and we couldn't be happier and prouder to be part of it all' The opportunity has sparked great interest and that will continue throughout the summer as the match squads will be fluid (not a finalised set squad) so more opportunities to take part are offered.