Peterborough ECB Diverse Communities Project: ‘Raising The Game’-Nepalese Community Case Study
Cricket East(CE) started engaging with the Nepalese communities Sachin Bhattarai pre Covid seeking to support them as they had no base of their own in the City to play cricket matches and were having to travel away from home to play all their matches against fellow communities in Nottingham, Leicester and elsewhere in the Midlands.
Dave Summers CE Diverse Communities Officer met with Club representatives including cricket captain Sachin to seek to see how practical support could be offered. Dave quickly saw the need for positive action and the opportunity for key ECB Pboro Diverse Community Project partners to work together again, this includes: County Sports Partnership: Living Sport, Friends of Central Park Committee, National Asian Cricket Council, City Council Cohesion and Social Mobility Manager, Cambs Police & Crime Commissioners Office, Huntingdonshire County Cricket Club, Lords Taverners Wicketz Programme Development Officer and Huntingdonshire ECB Association of Cricket Officials, these partners regularly work together using cricket as a vehicle for developing cohesion and integration in the city.
Many players work patterns meant they are unable to play regular weekend and midweek league cricket, so some outside of the box thinking was required to ensure they could be included and experience competitive activities, thereby raising opportunities.
As a result, Dave arranged for Central Park to host some softball match activity between their own community in June 2022 as part of the cities Sports Day event which is right in the heart of the multi-cultural city, something they haven’t experienced before. There are 300 families from this community in the city and this was a key opportunity for them to be part of this event and feel welcome.
Further support has come along from the established cricket community in the city showing the power of the game to connect communities through Andrew McIntyre Treasurer of Hampton Cricket Club, he arranged for the community to use the clubs practice nets on Saturday mornings along with their astro pitch facility to host a game or 2 themselves.
Hampton had experienced some gaps in League fixtures for a few weekends so recently they arranged an early Saturday morning T20 game with the Nepalese community. In their innings they set 127-8. Hampton chased this score down in 16 overs.
Arrangements have now been made for 2 members of the Nepalese team to benefit from raising opportunities and securing places on a Foundation 1 Coaching Course in Peterborough in September to support the development of the grass roots game in their own community. They have recently also taken over the running of a redundant community centre in one of the cities townships.
Andrew said: ‘Saturday was our second friendly match with the guys, we try to organise a friendly T20 game every year, we are ideally looking to increase the volume of those matches throughout the coming years. We have a really good relationship with the guys and also really enjoy off the pitch getting over to their restaurant when we can. We also have a few of them registered to play weekend cricket or midweek cricket, just purely depends on their availability. A few of them seemed to be pretty handy players, potentially a good pipeline as mentioned where we’ve now lost our second team due to availability.’
Sachin Bhattarai, Cricket Captain and Sports Co Ordinator Peterborough Nepalese community said: ‘We do appreciate all of the support, Hampton Cricket Club have been kind to allow us to use the ground. I can already see so much improvement in our games. We do appreciate all the support and guidance we are been getting from Dave Summers at CE too, thank you. We would love more friendly games under our belt. If any opportunities arise do remember us. I believe the coaching course will certainly help us to even develop our game and create a system.’
The community are also very keen on football and have been put in touch with another CE partner Peterborough United FC through their Community Manager to explore wider participation opportunities here.
Nepalese community contact information: sachinbhattarai46@gmail.com
Case Study compiled by dave.summers@cricketeast.co.uk
Cricket East Diverse Communities Officer
July 2022