Ireland is known as the land of a hundred thousand welcomes. And our national welcoming attitude extends of course to our cricket clubs …. or does it?
Simply said, inclusion means everyone is included – regardless of ability or disability, race, gender, country of origin, beliefs, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, age, station in life or family status.
Most of the clubs in Leinster will have in their constitution that there will be no discrimination on any of the above grounds. But does that mean that everyone is included? Perhaps we are missing a trick. What if we can take steps to increase our membership? We all want to grow our clubs.
In simple terms, having more members means having more talent, more money, more volunteers, and more potential sponsors. Is the absence of inclusion the reason you are missing out on new members? Are you missing out on new sponsors and funding? Can we help you grow your club?
In September last year Cricket Leinster sent an Inclusion Questionnaire to all its member clubs. Some of the clubs completed it or at least used it to discuss how inclusive their club really was.
This was followed up by CL development staff which gave some general preliminary findings: a lack of gender balance at committee level as well as a lack of female participation and a lack of engagement with the broader community.
Cricket Leinster is looking to move forward to see where the obstacles to inclusion lie and what solutions we can offer.
On Thursday 25th February (7.00pm – 8.30pm), Cricket Leinster will organise a webinar which will be discussing how to make our clubs, and the cricket community as a whole, more inclusive. Will you help us?
To register, simply click this link (no charge event):