Board of Directors

Jennifer Owen Adams – Chair

Originally from Ceredigion, now living in Powys, Jennifer’s professional background for over 30 years is in secondary, further and higher education and the Third Sector across England and Wales. She is currently the Director of Wales and the West Midlands for the education charity Teach First. Wherever Jennifer has been, cricket has always been a part of her life to varying degrees since early childhood and wanting more people to fall, and stay in love with cricket is a large part of why she first got involved with Cricket Wales.

Equality for all defines Jennifer’s approach to work and outlook on life generally; she is a firm believer that everyone deserves a fair chance to reach their potential; and she works tirelessly to take away the barriers which prevent some from achieving.

Being outdoors is key for Jenn; as is working with individuals and organisations to help build resilience and sustainability across rural communities. She is the inaugural Chair of Impelo, a dance organisation based in mid Wales whose reach extends across Wales and the UK, and a Member of Glas Cymru. Jenn also sits on the ECB’s Participation and Growth committee.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-owen-adams-262b1595/

Dr Samara Afzal - Independent Director

Samara was born in Wordsley and is employed as a GP in the West Midlands. She grew up with a love of all things cricket and was one of the first Asian females to play county cricket, representing Warwickshire in 2003/04. She is also a level 1 ECB coach and helps coach girls at her local club when work permits.

She has worked voluntarily with the NACC (National Asian Cricket Council), setting up the first pilot project which involved getting female patients from a South Asian Background to play cricket, aimed to help their physical and mental well-being. She also works voluntarily with the Shahid Afridi foundation, helping raise money for the poor through events such as charity cricket matches.

Samara has done a lot of work addressing health inequalities particularly during the Covid Pandemic. She was recognised on International Women’s Day by ITV central as one of the 6 females leading the fight against Covid. She was also given the ‘raise the bat award’ from the ECB for her work during the pandemic and has recently been involved with the I.C.C. (International Cricket Committee) in their preparations for the upcoming Cricket World Cup.

Samara strongly believes in equality and everyone getting equal opportunities in life; “I absolutely love cricket and want to promote this amazing sport that has given me so many crucial life skills.”

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samara-afzal-a8ba34199/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-owen-adams-262b1595/

Twitter: @SamaraAfzal

Colin John – Finance Director

Colin joined the CBW and the WCA as Finance Director and Treasurer respectively in the spring of 2010 and continued in his role of Finance Director with Cricket Wales. Colin is a member of Whitland Cricket Club and is a former player there.

Richard Penney – Recreational Game Director

Born in Somerset in 1955, Richard moved to Glasgow at the age of two where school uniform was a kilt! Upon moving to Cheshire in 196, education continued with a more subdued dress code and a first introduction to cricket occurred at Crewe Grammar School.

Richard Represented the school 1st XI for 4 years as a tear away (a polite wording of a erratic!) left arm quickie. A break from cricket occurred during University and joining the police force meant little time for cricket.

Cricket returned for Richard via an on duty call at a Chester Dentist who kindly waived his fee if he turned out for his village side on the following Sunday. Not believing Richard was a bowler as he actually had all his own (slightly musty) kit, he was told to open the batting. Eighty runs later Richard was back in love with the game and has been synonymous with it for 40 years.

There probably isn’t a role or position Richard hasn’t held as a player and volunteer during 35 years at Hawarden Park CC and 15 years or more as a member of the North Wales League committee, the last 12 as Treasurer.

Twitter: RichardPenney16

Tony Moss - Recreational Game Director

Tony is a retired Education Officer with Cheshire County Council and now works part time as Examinations Officer in Elfed High School, Buckley, North Wales.

He was Chairman of North East Wales Junior Cricket Region prior to the commencement of the new Cricket Wales North Pathway and is a member of the Cricket Wales North Board and senior leadership team. He is a qualified Level lI Club Coach, having coached juniors at all levels for over 40 years and has run successful schools coaching programmes for both boys and girls, including the formation of the North East Wales Girls cricket hub. He is also a member of the North Wales Cricket League Management Committee and Child Welfare Officer for the League and Junior Pathway and is a qualified Umpire. Tony is Chairman of the Flintshire Community Chest Panel.

Tony is currently putting his energies into supporting the development of the new Cricket Wales North Pathway.

Sue Phelps MBE – Independent Director

Having enjoyed both playing and watching all kinds of sport for most of her years, it has been a pleasure for Sue to contribute to the work of Cricket Wales as an Independent Director. Her particular interest in cricket stemmed from being the eldest daughter of a cricket playing father who involved her at the earliest age from learning to catch with a cricket ball, to helping with the teas at his local Club and progressing to being a scorer at the age of 14.

Sue is employed by Alzheimer’s Society and has worked with the organisation for nearly 25 years starting as an Administrative Secretary and moving through a number of roles to reach her current role as Director for Wales. Becoming an Independent Director was an opportunity to marry Sue’s skills and experience in change management, managing a significant budget, developing a framework of organisational values and behaviours, people management and safeguarding, with those required for a Board member. As well as being a full Board member, Sue also sits on both the Finance and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion sub-committees. On a more personal note, Sue married a Welshman and made the move from England to Wales 34 years ago and has been blessed with two daughters and a grand-daughter who she relishes spending time with.

Sian Webber - Recreational Game Director

Siân Webber grew up in a cricket mad family and spent many hours as a youngster watching Glamorgan play at St Helen’s. She has 3 sporty sons, two of whom who are aspiring cricketers. Siân has been the Junior Coordinator at Swansea Cricket Club for many years, leading on their ECB Clubmark and the All Stars programme. She has a keen interest in cricket history and is researching the history of the Swansea Cricket Club.

In her professional life, Siân is a chartered librarian and works at Swansea University as Head of Special Collections & Librarian of the South Wales Miners’ Library. When not in work, Siân spends much her time ferrying her sons to cricket training and games all over the country and is gaining an appreciation of the amazing work cricket clubs around the country are doing, often with very limited resources.

Twitter: @sianyswml

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sianswml

Gareth Rees - Glamorgan Cricket Representative

Gareth Rees is an ex-Glamorgan cricketer who played nearly two hundred matches and scored over 7,500 runs for Glamorgan before retiring from professional cricket in 2014. He now works for the world’s largest reinsurance company, Swiss Re, in the automotive and mobility space. The 36-year-old also holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Bath and is a board member on Ballet Cymru, Wales’ leading ballet company.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gareth-rees-5309a736/

Twitter: @garethprees28

Gethin Jenkins - Independent Director

From Cardiff, Gethin has over 15 years experience as a senior executive with international and national governing bodies in a number of sports as well as at club level with Newport Gwent Dragons and Cardiff City Football Club.

Experienced in strategic planning, operational delivery, financial management and governance, he also has event and competition management experience. This has included delivering tournaments in places ranging from Santiago to Moscow and being Head of Event Delivery at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

A keen follower of all sports with a particular interest in Cricket from a young age, he is looking forward to applying his experience and ideas in the sporting sector to assist in the development of Welsh Cricket.

Dr Tim Masters – Recreational Game Director

Tim lives in the hills above Sennybridge and plays his club cricket at Hay-on-Wye Cricket Club where he is club captain and the club’s welfare officer. Best described by his teammates as a limited but reliable batter, he continues to move slowly down the order.

A scientist by training, he worked for Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water for 20 years in a variety of senior management roles including strategic planning, customer service, and operational delivery. More recently he was employed by the England and Wales Cricket Board as the Regional Head of Participation for Wales and South West England.

Outside of cricket, Tim is a fan of rugby, previously coaching at junior level, and is a recent convert to running having completed a number of half marathons.

Understanding of the pressures on clubs, he is really looking to this opportunity to use his business skills and cricket knowledge to help and support cricket so that it can continue to grow and thrive.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-masters-038a4637/

Huw Morgan – Independent Director

Huw has served as an Independent Director of Cricket Wales since 2016 and is also a member of the Finance Committee. Huw has a sound knowledge of the operational, commercial and financial challenges that face this organisation, and contributes significantly to the Board in these spaces.

Huw’s early career was in the City of London financial markets. He has managed at Chief Executive Officer level and within multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural organisations. The organisations have all required significant re-organisation with demanding financial management and complex strategies. These have included roles as the first full time CEO of Harlequins Rugby Club, Commercial Director at Arrows F1 Team and Commercial Director for the International Rugby Board and at 4 Rugby World Cup Tournaments. Huw has also held directorships at Premier Rugby, Gloucester Rugby and British Rowing.

Huw has a plethora of experiences serving as a Non – Executive Director on a variety of Boards, and this experience, together with working with many different industry sectors, adds to his contribution to Cricket Wales.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-huw-morgan-63821a60/

Gareth Lanagan - Recreational Game Director

As a Barry boy, Gareth started his journey with cricket with the very friendly Barry Wanderers under the tutelage of the late Mike Ashton. In the last thirty years he has had the pleasure of playing for the Wanderers, Llandysul, Aberystwyth University and Dolgellau cricket clubs. Gareth was fortunate enough to contribute on the committees of all these clubs. At Dolgellau, Gareth was part of an instrumental group of people who made a big difference in a short time. This culminated in Gareth being the runner up for North Wales Coach of the year and the winner of the 2018 Sport Wales Volunteer of the year. Professionally Gareth has been in education most of his career, completing a Ph.D. on Weather Forecasting at Aberystwyth University. During this time he also started Welsh Medium provision of Mathematics in conjunction with the Coleg Cymraeg. More recently, Gareth was a lecturer in Mathematics and Programme Area Manager for A Levels at Dolgellau and Pwllheli sites of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai. In his current role Gareth is a Post-14 Curriculum Coordinator at Ceredigion Council. This sees him having over arching control of GCSEs and A Levels across the county. Within this role, he also coordinates e-sgol, Wales' first virtual school.

Gareth is also Cricket Wales' Lead Director for Safeguarding.

Twitter: @lonny1698

inkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/gareth-lanagan-0b02ba24

Shana Thomas Member

Shana, from Swansea, has grown up with sport being an integral part of her life; both playing and as a career. With an MSc in Physical Activity and Public Health, Shana’s career began as a Physical Activity Specialist at Swansea Public Health Team. She then spent 14 years at Sport Wales as a Senior Officer where she led on the development of Black and Minority Ethnic sport in Wales and was a lead in developing key relationships with Health Boards, Public Health Wales and mental health organisations. Currently, Shana works in the Sport Swansea team at Swansea University as the Engage Programme Manager. Shana plays her cricket at Ynystawe Cricket Club where she chair’s the ladies’ section, Ynystawe AllSorts, co-ordinates the All Stars and Dynamos programmes, leads the development of girls’ cricket at the club and is also a member of the Club’s committee. In 2021, Shana was awarded the ECB’s ‘Inspired to Play’ award for her contribution to the development of women’s cricket. She remains steadfast in supporting the women and girls’ game in Wales. With her partner, son and daughter playing at Ynystawe, cricket has become a family affair. Twitter: @Shanatomsport