The Hundred has certainly had it’s controversies but a new initiative with lead partner KP Snacks’ ‘Everyone In’ campaign is changing people’s opinion on the format as it aims to help grow grass roots cricket.
Charles Hague-Jones visited one of the parks where a pitch has been installed for a day of cricket with Birmingham Phoenix players and the surrounding community.
Charles Hague-Jones visited one of the parks where a pitch has been installed for a day of cricket with Birmingham Phoenix players and the surrounding community.
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00:00 The 100 has certainly had its controversies, but a new initiative forms part of KP Snacks
00:07 - Everyone in Campaign - which aims to champion balanced lifestyles throughout inspiring and
00:12 enabling more people to get active and play cricket.
00:16 Six pitches installed, ready to play on this year in and around Birmingham, with the remaining
00:21 in other areas set to be complete over the next two years.
00:25 It will see old pitches refurbished and given new life and unused park spaces also converted
00:30 into pitches for the community.
00:34 So my name is Mohamed Arif, I'm the Dynamo's Cricket Intros Ambassador.
00:38 I work for Warwickshire Cricket Board and I'm here today to support the KP Snacks event,
00:43 which is Everyone in.
00:45 We have a very big drive from a Warwickshire point of view to grow the game and develop
00:49 the game and that is everybody.
00:52 So opportunities like today are amazing so that gives families a great opportunity and
00:59 the KP investment really will help that and we're hopefully going to have lots of fun
01:04 today with families that have come with their siblings, their mums, their dads, their uncles,
01:09 their aunts.
01:10 I mean yeah, I'm from Birmingham myself and looking around the area there aren't many
01:15 cricket pitches in the parks and initiatives like this definitely get more kids out there
01:20 and playing the game so it's a brilliant thing to be doing.
01:23 The love for cricket has definitely picked up over the last few years.
01:25 I mean you've got some great schemes going around the leagues, getting kids involved
01:29 and I mean this is just another one to add to that.
01:32 So yeah, the guys are doing a great job and credit to everyone involved.
01:36 I think it's fantastic to have non-tour facilities like this and I guess community spaces.
01:41 I think everyone obviously wants to be getting nice, fit and healthy and active and what
01:45 better way to do that than coming down to your local park.
01:47 So awesome opportunity to engage with the local community.
01:50 So, is what's going on behind the scenes changing people's opinion on the format as
01:56 it helps to grow grassroots cricket and produce more homegrown talents from areas up and down
02:01 the nation?
02:02 100%.
02:03 The first thing I would say is that the 100 is aimed at a new crowd.
02:10 It's aimed at family friendlies, environments, giving the opportunities for boys and girls
02:17 to enjoy their cricket and what the 100 does is brings everything to life.
02:23 We had some very good crowds and some different crowds as well.
02:25 I mean there were some families down, there were some kids down and it was great to see.
02:29 So yeah, initiatives like this are definitely picking up the engagement of people and the
02:33 more people we can get at HBAS then the better it will be for all the players and all the
02:36 fans as well.
02:37 At the end of the day we just want more people being engaged with the game of cricket, whatever
02:40 that looks like and the 100's obviously been a massive driver and initiatives like this
02:44 are fantastic and hopefully we're reaching a different audience as well.
02:49 With smiling faces everywhere here at West Smedwick Park as more of these events take
02:54 place up and down the country there's sure to be an influx of young people, male and
02:59 female get involved in the world of cricket.
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