Sunday July 20 at Grace Road saw the third iteration of the African Caribbean Cricket Festival, a joint venture between the ECB, Sport England, the ACE Programme, and the Leicestershire & Rutland Cricket Foundation. The day was a celebration of African and Caribbean heritage and culture. With cricket at its heart, highlights featured a Caribbean XI taking on a Windrush XI, followed by a match between the ACE Academy and Antigua & Barbuda under-19s.

Part of the festival’s purpose is to drive participation in cricket amongst the Black community, a group whose involvement in the recreational game has been in severe decline and whose appetite for cricket seems far removed from the halcyon days between 1960s and 1990s when young Caribbean men from the Windrush generation locked horns in the London Transport Leagues and beyond. Such has been the decline, a Sport England survey back in 2020 stated that the number of Black players taking part in recreational cricket was “so low as to be statistically irrelevant”.

The starkness of such findings underscores why the African Caribbean Cricket Festival is so important. Having now held its third event, the question is whether its central purpose – getting more cricketers from the Black community involved in the game – has been served.

One of the festival’s organisers is the ACE Programme. ACE stands for African Caribbean Engagement and is a charity that goes into schools, sets up community hubs and offers elite coaching with the goal of getting more members from African and Caribbean communities, particularly young people, playing cricket. Chevy Green, ACE’s director of programmes, explains that the ACE Programme currently operates in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield.

“We’ve had great success in developing our model in terms of going into schools, and in the last year our Academy has done really well attracting new participants. Within that time, Troy Henry, who was our captain and played in the African Caribbean Cricket Festival last year, has signed for Sussex and Amy Wheeler is signed to The Blaze. It shows our Academy can reach the heights of having some professional players.”

On the fact that there aren’t young Black players playing in academies, Green says: “It was a perceived reality and we’ve addressed that. We’ve still got a long way to go, but seeing the successes we’ve had in a small space of time has been fantastic. The stigma’s still going to be there and a lot of that is to do with awareness and role models.”

The day was attended by both Chris Jordan and Jofra Archer, two of England’s most successful Black players of recent times. “You can’t be what you can’t see,” adds Green. More events like today can create more awareness.”

One player who has flown the flag for the ACE Programme of late has been Davina Perrin, recently part of the Bears side that reached the final of the inaugural Women’s T20 Blast. The 18-year-old batter, who made her debut for England A this summer, stressed the importance of events like this.

“Knowing that there’s a community of people like you that will welcome you with open arms, it’s important to be able to see that,” says Perrin. “Having Jofra and Chris Jordan in attendance and greats like Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh is showing kids that you can be what’s in front of you.”

On hopefully inspiring girls, she adds: “Just being on the pitch is enough. It’s great for young girls to see and great for them to see a clear pathway.”

On getting more girls from Black communities involved, Chelsea Alagoa, ACE Women & Girls development officer says: “The biggest challenge is other sports. There’s a strong allegiance to sports like football, netball and track and field, and given the lack of role models it’s really difficult for them to see themselves playing cricket.”

Both Perrin and Alagoa were introduced to cricket by members of their families, but for those who may not come from a family with an existing interest in the game, role models and community events are of the utmost importance. This is why the work that ACE is doing, as well as the African Caribbean Cricket Festival, are so important in driving participation.

According to Neil Snowball of the ECB, events like this provide a focal point to a lot of the wider work going on around the country. “It’s important to note that it’s not the only significant day of the year, but it’s more of a catalyst,” he explains.

“The African Caribbean Festival came from some listening sessions we ran a few years ago with Devon Malcolm and there was a lot of talk about the importance of that network of Caribbean cricket clubs and also the fact that there used to be a big festival where they
all came together.”

On the question of why African Caribbean participation in the game has dropped, he cites a disconnect with the game, with members of the Black community not feeling welcome at clubs, and also the decline in the strength of the West Indies as they faded from being one of the world’s leading Test-playing nations.

Unlike cricketers from the South Asian community, many of whom play in their own organised leagues away from ECB competitions, many members of the Black community had simply stopped playing.

“We want cricket to be a game for everyone and there is a part of society, the African Caribbean community, that feels underserved by the game,” says Snowball. “They have an incredibly proud heritage, so it’s an absolute no-brainer to build that into the work that the ECB’s diverse communities team do, with guidance from Devon. It’s just the right thing to do and we should continue to do that.”