6th March 2023
| Mallory Gray
Cricket Wales will be further developing and advancing its Safeguarding operation in 2023 and can today unveil a new Senior Management team.
Cricket Wales was one of only a handful of Counties recently awarded a green ranking from the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), following their audit of partners' processes, policies, leadership and culture, and serves as independent verification of the whole organisation's commitment to keeping our game safe.
At the recent Cricket Wales Board meeting, Directors formally endorsed the Cricket Wales Safer Recruitment policy and formally signed the ECB's Safe Hands policy. An Anti-Bullying policy for the whole game has also been approved by the Board, building on our own staff policies and codes of conduct.
Experienced Director Tim Masters was also ratified by the Board as our new Safeguarding Lead. This oversight ensures continued commitment from Board and Executive on all matters pertaining to Safeguarding and the highest level of awareness and scrutiny.
Tim joined Cricket Wales' new Designated Safeguarding Lead, Linda Medlicott, recently at the ECB's Safeguarding Conference in Loughborough. You can watch their conversation here:
Linda, who started in her role in February, brings a wealth of Safeguarding and child protection experience, gained both in sports national governing bodies and clubs (football and motorsport) and education.
Speaking of her appointment, Linda Medlicott said, "As I learned more about Cricket Wales through the interview process, the more I wanted the job! It is clear Safeguarding is taken seriously, from the very top and across the staff, but there is an opportunity - and appetite - to go even further and be genuinely proactive in approach, both as an organisation and with our clubs.
"The Safe Hands Management system has been widely adopted by our clubs, and we have every expectation that all affiliated clubs in Wales should have access to the system by the end of this year, and our Area teams are working hard to achieve this.
"I would like to place on record my thanks to Dave Loosmore who has done an outstanding job of 'steering the ship' in the last few months, prior to my joining, and I look forward to working with him closely as my Deputy, and indeed all the League Safeguarding Officers across Wales, who are both energetic and well-respected.
"I would also like to thank Ashleigh Scott at the ECB for her support in my onboarding. I am now looking forward to going through NSPCC CPSU audit process and liaising with Sport Wales on fulfilling and exceeding their expectations of us.
"All our partners clearly share Cricket Wales' commitment to embedding safeguarding awareness and capability. There is a suite of new training from ECB currently being rolled out, which is 'role'-specific, which we hope will make learning even more accessible and relevant.
"It is an extremely exciting time to join, and I have a wonderful foundation on which to build."
With preparations for the new season in full swing, clubs are reminded of age restrictions in open age cricket;
Players who are selected in Wales & Regional squads in spring for a summer squad for that season are eligible to play open age cricket, providing they are at least 11 years old, are in School Year 7 on 1st September in the year preceding the season and have written parental consent to play.
Club cricketers who are not in Welsh or Regional squads must wait until they reach the U13 age group, be in Year 8 and be 12 years old on 1st September of the preceding year before being able to play in any open age group cricket. As before written parental consent is required for these players.
Key Safeguarding contacts can be found here. Safeguarding is EVERYONE's responsibility; If you have a concern, you should raise this to any of our officers, your Club Safeguarding Officer, or to [email protected]