Huzaifa Yousafzai speaks to Colson Smith about his Castleford cricket initiative
Coronation Street actor Colson Smith returned to his home club of Castleford CC in West Yorkshire to launch the town’s first ever women’s and girls’ cricket teams.
Smith has teamed up with the Metro Bank Girls in Cricket Fund to build a women’s and girls’ section from scratch, with his journey being followed by a camera crew, resulting in an online documentary called Colson’s Cricket Club.
27-year-old Smith grew up in Castleford before advancing into an acting career that saw him spend 14 years as Craig Tinker in the cast of Coronation Street, as well as appearing in Celebrity Big Brother. Now a presenter, Smith has been involved with Castleford CC since an early age.
“Nine years old was the first time I went to my local club and fell in love with cricket but I wasn't very good at playing. So I turned my attention to how a club runs off the field,” says Smith.
“From 15 I was on the committee and for the last 10 years I've been at the forefront of running a club that is now in the Yorkshire Premier League North and has had success in recent years. However, the ECB changed the accreditation process to mandate having a women and girls section and we had never had one before.”
Faced with a challenge, Smith took inspiration from his background in television, with the aim of creating a documentary alongside the project to “showcase to other Premier League clubs that if Castleford can do it in a working class area where the main sport is not cricket, and with only one ground and two senior sides, then anyone can do it.”
Yet by no means was it going to be easy, as Smith explains: “The hardest challenge is getting them down for the first time because they just don't think cricket's for them.
“Selling cricket and keeping people interested is really hard. I've single handedly gone to shopping centres and schools to try to get people down to the club on a Wednesday night to try cricket. Especially in Castleford which is a working class town that is very proud of its mining background and rugby league. They don't even know that we have a cricket club here.”
Fortunately for Smith he didn't have to look too far for guidance, as former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and former Lancashire seamer Kyle Hogg had starred in Field of Dreams, a BBC show where they created cricket teams from scratch, including a women’s side.
“I asked Kyle for advice and it was the most helpful thing because he gave me a blueprint in an hour of exactly what we need to do and what we need to follow to make our project successful.
“Fred and Kyle did the most amazing job of showcasing cricket to an entertainment audience with Field of Dreams. They made cricket seem so accessible and it's a huge inspiration for me as it was probably the greatest non-sporting cricket related show that's ever been made.”
Smith also teamed up with Metro Bank, who have had a joint fund with the ECB since 2024, aimed at accelerating cricket's progress towards becoming a more inclusive sport, through community programmes that attract and retain women and girls within cricket.
“I was adamant in conversation with Metro Bank that this isn't a vanity project for myself and is instead me trying to showcase a club that I love, and hopefully get more women and girls to come and fall in love with cricket just like I did when I was an 11-year-old child.”
With help from the Metro Bank Girls in Cricket Fund and Hogg, alongside a lot of determination and persistence, Smith eventually saw the outcomes he was hoping for.
“What’s been the most rewarding is that I've seen people who said, it's not for them but after weeks four and five, they're still there and talking about when the first game is.”
Now with a women’s and girls’ section up and running, Smith has no plans of slowing down in his commitment to continue improving the cricket club he runs, as well as supporting the local community.
“My primary responsibility at Castleford is to future proof a club that has 150 years of history and hopefully has 150 years more. I have so many ideas like a centre of excellence in West Yorkshire, all-weather nets, and my goal has to be to make Castleford one of the top local cricket clubs in the country.”
Every Episode of Colson’s Cricket Club can be found on his Instagram, YouTube and Facebook pages.
