ECB County Grant Fund 2026 - Expression of Interest Window now open!
ECB County Grants Fund 2026 - Guidance Notes for Cricket Clubs
ABOUT THE 2026 ECB COUNTY GRANTS FUND
The County Grants Fund aims to support ECB affiliated Cricket Clubs, which are actively engaged with women’s cricket, girls’ cricket and/or disability cricket, to create welcoming environments or to provide enhanced playing or changing facilities, in an effort to increase the number of women’s, girls’ and disability cricket teams, and to achieve the game’s vision to become the most inclusive team sport (Inspiring Generations 2025 – 2028).
As outlined above, the 2026 fund will focus more specifically on clubs that are supporting women’s cricket, girls’ cricket and/or disability cricket. For clubs that apply to the fund there will also be more stringent scrutiny around these area so as to ensure that the applicant club can clearly demonstrate its compliance to these focus areas. Specifically, eligibility for the fund will be as follows:
Eligibility:
Clubs must deliver cricket for at least one of the following target groups:
- Women’s Cricket: a minimum of one women's team playing a minimum of three competitive soft ball or hard ball fixtures in league, friendly, indoor or outdoor cricket in 2025/2026, as recorded on Play-Cricket.com
- Girls’ Only Cricket: a minimum of one girls' team playing a minimum of three competitive soft ball or hard ball fixtures in league, friendly, indoor or outdoor cricket in 2025/2026, as recorded on Play-Cricket.com
- Girls’ Only Dynamos Cricket: Clubs delivering a Dynamos Cricket programme specifically for girls in 2025/2026, as registered on ClubSpark.
- Dynamos Cricket for Girls’ Activation Clubs: Dynamos Cricket for Girls delivered by Clubs which have been selected by their Recreational Cricket Board (RCB) or Cricket Foundation (CF) to deliver Dynamos Cricket for Girls in 2025/2026 that specifically leads to the creation of girls’ teams at the selected Clubs, as registered on ClubSpark.
- Disability Cricket: a registered Disability Champion Cricket Club or a registered host for the Disability Premier League in 2025/2026.
PROJECT THEMES
The 2026 County Grants Fund will offer clubs the opportunity to apply for projects under the following themes (clubs should choose one project theme only):
- Creating Welcoming Environments:
- Social Space – furniture / flooring / patio / decking / heating / glazing
- Female / Disabled Toilet Facilities – sanitaryware / vanity units / tiling / flooring / baby-changing units / mirrors / hand dryers
- Catering – kitchen units / professional catering equipment & appliances / barbecues
- Arrival and Access – disabled access / exterior lighting / signage / car park
- Digitising – WiFi hardware (excludes subscription fees) / TVs / PA or Music systems / Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) equipment / Electronic Scoreboards (only if part of a wider digitisation project)
- Enhanced Playing Facilities:
- ECB Approved Non-Turf Match Pitch (min 30m)
- ECB Approved Non-Turf Practice Facility (min 26m)
- Enhanced Changing Facilities:
- Changing room refurbishment and/or extensions
- Individual shower spaces with drying areas
- Improved toilet provision – sanitaryware / vanity units / tiling / flooring
- Grooming points – mirrors / hand dryers / hair dryers
- Personal possession lockers
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY GRANTS FUND IN WILTSHIRE
Since the launch of the ECB County Grant Fund in 2022, affiliated clubs in Wiltshire have received a total of £269,000 of investment, split across 42 different individual projects. These have been across a number of different themes and have covered a range of projects including; Pavilion Social Spaces, Digital Point of Sale Equipment, Outdoor Net Facilities, Improved Toilet Facilities, Outdoor Social Spaces, Wifi improvements, Improved water efficiency, Improved Women’s changing facilities, Electric mowers
CHANGES TO BE AWARE OF FOR 2026’S COUNTY GRANTS FUND
We have mentioned above the increased focus around women’s cricket, girls’ cricket and disability cricket in 2026. However, for a more detailed summary of changes to this year’s fund we would highlight:
- The eligibility criteria to focus on women’s and girls’ cricket, to tie in with the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup 2026, and / or disability cricket.
- The increase in the amount of grant that can be awarded to a club, from £10,000 to £15,000.
- The introduction of the increased grant up to £50,000 for larger scale enhanced changing facility projects (total project cost above £30,000). These projects will be required to meet Sport England Accessible and Inclusive Sports Facilities Design Guidance – Section D (see link in Section 13 of the Guidance Notes).
- Applicants will be able to submit multiple claims and will be required to complete a reconciliation, in line with our other grant schemes.
- In exceptional circumstances, and at EWCT’s discretion, the end date may be extended for larger scale enhanced changing facilities projects.
HOW WILL THE COUNTY GRANTS FUND WORK IN WILTSHIRE IN 2026?
- Our Budget: It is important to note that Wiltshire Cricket receives a finite budget from ECB to support clubs through the ECB County Grant Fund. For 2026, our budget is £73,000
- With a finite budget, we may not be able to support all clubs to the extent that every club wishes. Therefore, to ensure that we can fairly consider the merits of all projects we will be asking clubs to submit expressions of interest within a fixed time window (see below). This will then enable us to assess all projects fairly and in doing so ensure that all investment decisions are made using consistent principles and in the knowledge of how the demand compares with the budget we have available.
- With a finite budget, we may not be able to support all clubs to the extent that every club wishes. Therefore, to ensure that we can fairly consider the merits of all projects we will be asking clubs to submit expressions of interest within a fixed time window (see below). This will then enable us to assess all projects fairly and in doing so ensure that all investment decisions are made using consistent principles and in the knowledge of how the demand compares with the budget we have available.
- Expression Of Interest: If you would like to express interest in a project being considered for this round of County Grant funding, you will need to first complete an EOI. The person identified as the key contact within your Cricket Club will be required to complete this brief Expression of Interest (EOI) form containing basic information about the proposed project. This will then be submitted to Wiltshire Cricket for initial review.
- For details on how to get to the point of being able to access the EOI form, please read points 9.1 to 9.4 in the attached guidance notes (page 9). The address for beginning your EOI is; https://ims.ecb.co.uk
- For details on how to get to the point of being able to access the EOI form, please read points 9.1 to 9.4 in the attached guidance notes (page 9). The address for beginning your EOI is; https://ims.ecb.co.uk
- Timeframes: The ability for clubs to submit expressions of interest will be live from this week. From this point onwards, our timescales will be as follows. With these timescales in place it will allow clubs who wish to do so the opportunity to start and in some cases complete projects before the start of the cricket season:
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Clubs to have submitted EOIs |
By Friday 6th March 2026 |
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Wiltshire Cricket decision on outcome of Club EOI (including level of investment) |
By Friday 13th March 2026 (after this point, clubs with EOIs that have been successfully approved by Wiltshire Cricket will be able to submit a full application) |
We now invite clubs to proceed with completing their Expressions of Interest before the deadline of 6th March 2026.
Any queries please don’t hesitate to contact Pete Sykes:
