Cricket Cities initiative keeps kids in the Loop

For the last three summers, the Surrey, Essex, Middlesex, and Kent cricket foundations have come together to run cost-free activity camps for children from across every borough of London that may otherwise not have been able to access them.

Known as the London Loop, the programme is part of the Cricket Cities initiative and exists to break down financial barriers to participation by offering a diverse range of activities for free, encouraging children to step away from their screens and interact with their peers from different backgrounds and different parts of the city.

Cricket Cities is an ECB initiative that uses targeted strategic investment to grow and sustain cricket participation among ethnically diverse and under-represented communities. It brings together Regional County Boards, community partners and local networks around the specific needs, barriers and opportunities of each place, building stronger local cricket ecosystems, workforce and provision that can become increasingly embedded and sustainable.

The London Loop uses cricket as a vehicle for good and in particular encourages children from all over the capital to integrate and connect with each other. Cricket is understandably the main focus on the activity side of things, but this year’s activities also included yoga, orienteering, a woodland walk and even a trip to the beach.

“The London Loop was born out of the Surrey Cricket Foundation's own programme called the Vauxhall Loop,” says Harjot Sidhu, Surrey Cricket Foundation’s diverse communities officer.

“We rotate groups of kids around the activities to give them an opportunity to experience activities that they might not otherwise have known exist and provide them some kind of exposure to some essential skills.

“We bring kids together from different parts of London and mix them all up into different groups. They're with kids that they don't know. They're not with their friends. It gives an opportunity to these kids to make friends from all over different parts of London.”

For the first time, this year’s event was actually held outside of London, with 50 children travelling down to Arundel to spend three days at Arundel Castle Cricket Club after the facilities down there were kindly offered to be used by the Arundel Castle Cricket Foundation. For some children it may have been the first time they’d ever left London, while for others it was the first time they’d had the opportunity to spend a couple of nights away from home. As well as free accommodation, all participants also received three free meals a day.

“The kids we sign up are those that we feel would benefit from experiences like this,” Sidhu explained. A lot of the children who took part in this year’s London Loop come from more deprived parts of London or attend a school where there is a high percentage of children on free school meals. They may otherwise be at risk during the summer holidays and not in a position to have access to three hot meals a day.

The camp was really about the experience, with a strict “no phones” policy, encouraging children to get away from screens and enjoy playing outside and taking part in physical activity and really immerse themselves in the moment.

On what he wants participants to take away from the experience, Sidhu added: “I think it's social cohesion and getting these kids to integrate and interact with each other. Getting them to see what other opportunities there are in life. They might then find something brand new and a hobby or a passion that then sparks a new interest. Who knows where that might take them?”

The London Loop is about the life experience that the children can take away from it. Children leave with new skills, a new confidence in themselves, new perspectives on life and an awareness of what opportunities are out there for them.

“Ultimately, in a nutshell, it's an opportunity,” says Sidhu. “In the world that we're living in now, you're watching the news and see stories about the issues in urban inner city areas about kids and youth violence. We want to try and give the kids the opportunity that might take them away from that sort of thing.”