Grassroots Cricket Clubs

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Westminster Hall

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I thank the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Andrew Lewin) for securing the debate.

Cricket is our heritage. It has probably been played since the mid-1500s and was formalised in the late 1700s. The sport likely originated with shepherd children using shepherd’s crooks as bats and rags or wool as a ball. It is a legacy of the empire and is enjoyed globally. Cricket is also a major business, generating billions in revenue when done right, mainly from the Indian premier league. But fundamentally, for many, cricket is more than a sport; it is a passion. As the hon. Member alluded to, nothing says England more than a green with players in white and the sound of leather hitting willow. In the summer I am blessed, because there are so many cricket clubs in my constituency that barely a weekend goes by when I am not invited to a tournament to hand out a trophy. I would like to mention SASA cricket club, just because it provides really great food and hundreds of people of all ages come—it is fantastic to see.

In April 2024, the then Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak), made a pledge to invest £35 million in grassroots cricket. It was much needed, given that 80 school cricket pitches had been lost over the decade since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, and 150 publicly accessible cricket pitches had also been lost. This is part of a larger erasure of grassroots sporting facilities, including 2,488 school grass pitches. I know it is a different sport altogether, but 677 publicly accessible tennis courts were also lost. Unfortunately, in October 2024 the present Government reversed that promise, citing the financial black hole and saying that the pledge belonged in fantasy land.

Simply, we need more cricket facilities, ranging from dedicated facilities with well-manicured lawns, changing rooms and scoreboards, to the strip of synthetic turf that is all some people need. All such facilities are unfortunately in short supply in my city and my constituency. That is a shame, as the city of Leicester is cricket mad.

The issue is that countless grassroots teams are competing with minimal resources. Teams that play just for fun come to play on one solitary turf—the only one available for miles around. If one team cannot play, hostilities sometimes arise, and then, if the teams are from different ethnicities, races or religions, an issue of resource constraints suddenly escalates into something much bigger. Sacco, the largest cricket club representing south Asian players in Leicester, unfortunately has no home to play in at the moment and may have to face extinction, while the wonderful SASA team that I described earlier just needs a piece of turf and would be delighted with a small changing room. Small investments now will sustain these clubs and save us millions in terms of community cohesion and other issues in the future, while delivering the benefits that we all know only sports can deliver.

I also want to speak briefly about women’s cricket. It is expanding but, again, a lack of infrastructure, volunteers, coaches and ground shares could put a halt to that. What are the Minister’s plans for the growth of women’s cricket in this country?

My final points are on a slightly darker subject: the lessons learned from the horrendous racism and discrimination faced by Azeem Rafiq. Many will know the young, talented cricketer who paid the price for his honesty. It ruined his career, but it could have been a lot worse. I spoke with the former Yorkshire county cricketer this morning. It would be fair to say that he is somewhat disappointed that the implementation of the findings of the “State of Equity in Cricket” report, which was instigated after his case, has not matched their intention, but he remains hopeful and so do I.

The report speaks of opening

“access to the talent pathways through reducing financial barriers”.

Cricket is very expensive, and talent is everywhere but opportunities are not. Children from poorer and ethnic backgrounds are literally paying the price. They need support and we need to reverse the trend—I think we are going some way towards doing so—whereby over 30% of recreational cricket is played by south Asian children but only 3% of professional players are south Asian. We have to bridge that gap somehow.

We also need more diverse boards across the county game. It is difficult to obtain information about diversity on our county cricket boards. Women in senior roles are few, so it was wonderful for me to meet the new Leicestershire county cricket club chief executive officer, Emma White, who has strong ideas and plans to bring the club back to the community. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Leicestershire county cricket club—the mighty Foxes—on their promotion to division 1. A “hear, hear” would be nice. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] Thank you very much.

However, there is a real lack of representation of black people on cricket boards, and much further to go to ensure that the recreational game has the capacity and expertise to deal with discrimination issues. Disability cricket also requires deeper integration within county and club systems, and more work is needed to develop disability cricket for women and girls. Grassroots cricket is the lifeblood of the future of the game. We must invest in it or, simply, it won’t be cricket.