Wiltshire Cricket sets itself up for the future with the merger of the Cricket Board and National County Club, and the recruitment of a new Head of Talent Pathway

Wiltshire Cricket Limited is delighted to announce that it has completed the merger of the Cricket Board and the National County Cricket Club. As part of a new organisational structure, the two bodies will now operate as one entity to drive Cricket’s future across all levels of the game in Wiltshire.

Through 2019 and the early parts of 2020, Wiltshire Cricket was engaged in the development of a county wide strategy to align closely with ECB’s own Inspiring Generations strategy for the period 2020-2024. This strategy was borne out of a desire from ECB for counties to demonstrate their vision for growing the game locally and inspiring future generations of players, volunteers and supporters. Aligned to the development of these strategies was an expectation from ECB for Boards and Clubs to truly collaborate in the production of these plans.

This spirit of collaboration provided the catalyst for Wiltshire Cricket’s two entities to begin discussions around the forming of a newly aligned organisational structure. Over time, the operational benefits of this structure have become clear to see and additionally we have recognised that there will be very clear benefits to having one company, as opposed to two, that is responsible for meeting the expected governance standards of a county level organisation.

On that latter point, all County Boards and National County Cricket Clubs will this month be entering in to a County Partnership Agreement (CPA) with ECB for the period 2021-2025. The CPA will be a legal agreement between counties and the ECB and will contain within it tier 1 standards relating to Governance, Safeguarding, Diversity and Inclusion, and Covid-19 protocols, as well tier 2 standards relating to all operational matters of both County Boards and National County Cricket Clubs.

With collaboration between Board and Club being such an underpinning principle of the county planning and CPA process, together with the significant work required to meet Governance and Safeguarding standards, it makes great sense that Wiltshire Cricket will be entering in to the CPA agreements as one entity, and in the coming weeks we will be beginning our governance reforms through the recruitment of new non-executive directors to the Board of Wiltshire Cricket Limited.

Operationally, Wiltshire Cricket will comprise of two strands going forwards:

  1. Cricket in the Community Department
  2. Wiltshire CCC Talent Pathway Department

Cricket in the community will represent the traditional work of the Cricket Board as well as all of the programmes and initiatives to grow the game to new audiences. Work within this department includes, but is not limited to; school delivery, pro-active club support, junior and adult participation, workforce development, women’s and girls’ development, disability cricket and facility development.

The second department above will carry the identity of Wiltshire County Cricket Club but with all representative cricket coming under its banner. The purpose of this is to align the whole player pathway from under 10s right the way through to the county 1st XI. We want young cricketers coming in to the player pathway at any stage to see a clear and visible link through to the pinnacle of cricket in Wiltshire. We also believe that the alignment of the whole pathway will be the beginning of the creation of consistent principles for players and coaches across all stages of our player pathway.

As part of driving the new Talent Pathway Department of Wiltshire Cricket we are delighted to announce that we have just completed the recruitment process for a new Head of Talent Pathway. The recruitment for this role commenced in early 2020 but was put on hold for twelve months due to Covid-19. However, the process recently re-started and following a robust process Tom Morton has been appointed to this new full time position and will be beginning in the post from 25th April.

Tom is well known to the county, having played for Wiltshire for 15 years and most recently having managed the county’s 1st and 2nd XI teams. Going forwards, Tom’s key responsibilities will span the management of the Wiltshire 1st and 2nd XI teams, delivery on the Emerging Player Programme and management of the whole age group player pathway for both girls and boys. This is an exciting role and will help to bring together the whole pathway, with part of the initial remit being to develop a talent pathway framework that will outline the consistent principles, values and characteristics that our players and coaches will work to across all stages of the pathway.

We look forward to welcoming Tom to the development team at this exciting moment in Wiltshire Cricket’s history