Wiltshire Cricket Staff Update - Flexible Furlough Arrangements

Message from Wiltshire Cricket Managing Director, Peter Sykes

At the beginning of April we wrote to the Cricket network across Wiltshire to inform clubs and partners that we would be utilising the Government’s Job Retention scheme and placing all permanent members of staff for Wiltshire Cricket Limited, apart from myself, on to Furlough. This has been a necessary move to help the Cricket Board navigate its way through what is a significantly uncertain financial period and at a time during which many of our normal programmes and activities have not been able to take place due to Government restrictions.

The reason for this email is to inform you that from 1^st July 2020 we will be utilising the new flexible Furlough arrangement to bring back all members of the team to work on an initial one day a week basis. This coincides with the improving picture for Cricket and the fact that we hope very soon to be moving to step 4 of ECB’s roadmap for the return of the recreational game. As we move towards this phase we want to be in a position to maximise any window we get for Cricket this summer and as such we will be regularly reviewing the part time arrangements with each of the members of our team in order to see whether we need to further increase our workforce capacity. For the timebeing though we need to balance increasing our workforce whilst at the same time continuing to be as prudent as possible in these uncertain times.

As alluded to earlier it is not yet the case that all of our normal work programmes can return and therefore some members of the Wiltshire Cricket team will be assigned short term projects and areas of work to lead on. These are designed around; a) what we are able to deliver now, b) what is practically possible for us to do now in terms of planning for later this summer and in to the winter, and, c) what will help Wiltshire Cricket to maximise any opportunities we get to play Cricket this summer. Therefore, please note interim areas of work and interim hours of work for members of the Wiltshire Cricket team, effective from 1^st July:

Please note that I will be continuing to work full time during this period and will continue to manage Wiltshire Cricket’s response during this Covid-19 period. This will continue to involve supporting and providing necessary updates to clubs, working with adult and junior leagues regarding plans for step 4 of ECB’s roadmap, and managing all staff with regards the work areas above. In the fullness of time and once the full impact of Covid begins to be known my attention will shift towards our new strategy for 2020-2024; Driving Cricket’s Future. This had just been released prior to us going in to lockdown and so clearly with the landscape having changed so significantly we will need to review the contents of the strategy in order to understand Wiltshire Cricket’s aspirations and priorities through to 2024.

Finally, a reminder about our latest Wiltshire Cricket Covid-19 recreational game update. This provides information on what we are working on at Wiltshire Cricket and some context behind what is happening at a Government and ECB level. Additionally, for clubs within the Wiltshire County Cricket League a reminder of the joint statement we released yesterday. We will be looking to release a similar statement for junior club cricket early next week as we continue our planning for when the Government hopefully approve Cricket’s matchplay return.