Wiltshire Cricket Latest Coronavirus Update
Following government advice from 16th March 2020, Wiltshire Cricket has issued a series of updates to various stakeholders in the county, summarised as follows:
County and District Girls and Boys Winter Coaching Programmes
Following last night’s government announcement, and in particular the advice for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others, we can confirm that all county and district boys and girls winter coaching programmes have been cancelled with immediate effect. We are sure you will agree that this decision is the correct one in the context of all of the updates and advice that were delivered yesterday evening.
In terms of the coming summer, Wiltshire Cricket is aware that many will be keen to understand the implications for the playing season. At this stage, we are awaiting official ECB guidance which we will then disseminate to the cricket community in Wiltshire. We are confident that an ECB update is imminent and from there we will be able to communicate local updates as appropriate and necessary. The important thing though at this stage is for us to simply follow government advice and what we are keen to ensure is that no cricket authorities in Wiltshire feel under pressure to make local decisions as to what the short and medium term future might hold. Those decisions will undoubtedly be made for us.
Wiltshire Cricket will endeavour to provide regular updates in the coming days, weeks and months.
Club Update
Wiltshire Cricket Limited has understandably begun to receive several enquiries from clubs regarding the latest ECB position on Coronavirus, particularly in relation to the upcoming playing season. Again, we are awaiting official ECB guidance which we will then disseminate to the cricket community in Wiltshire.
In terms of clubs, we did just want to confirm a couple of Wiltshire Cricket updates that clubs might find useful whilst we wait for further ECB updates:
- Junior and Senior coaching programmes – Despite schools and some leisure centres still being open, we have taken the decision to cancel all winter county and district coaching sessions. This is in light of last night’s government announcement, and in particular the advice for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others. We would therefore suggest that it would be perfectly sensible for clubs to cancel any winter training sessions that you might currently have planned
- Workforce Education courses – Confirmation that we will also be cancelling any currently scheduled Workforce Education courses, including the upcoming ECB Foundation 1 course, Groundsman’s workshop, All Stars and Dynamos Activator training, Umpires courses and Scorers courses
As well as the playing season implications we are aware that clubs will have other questions about club related programmes; for example All Stars Cricket and Dynamos Cricket. Wiltshire Cricket's thought on these is that much like league cricket there will need to be a national message related to these programmes so that there is a consistency across the country. Therefore, don’t feel under pressure to start making communications or decisions in relation to these programmes.
In addition to providing updates to current coaching programme attendees and clubs, Wiltshire Cricket has also contacted league and competition administratros advising that we wait for ECB guidance as opposed to feeling under any pressure to make decisions or begin scenario/solution planning for the coming season.
To those reading this message, Wiltshire Cricket hopes that it proves helpful. We will be in touch with all stakeholders on a regular basis as we move forward and as soon as there are more ECB updates we will share these as appropriate.
In the meantime we send our very best wishes to the whole cricket community across Wiltshire.
