Cricket in Wales Continues to Flourish - Club Audit Results 2023
22nd September 2023
| Mark Frost
The annual Cricket Wales audit of affiliated clubs' participation and membership in Wales has once again evidenced the overall rude health of the game. Once again, all major indicators and measures have seen an increase YOY, building on the growth shown in both our 2021 and 2022 audits.
The overall message from the data we have received from our clubs is that Cricket in Wales continues to thrive.
Our female participation rates are soaring, as is our sport's engagement with under-represented groups and, despite the myriad challenges of the last 3 years, traditional clubs and sections across Wales are growing, and all have offered new ways for people to play in their communities, especially in areas less traditionally associated with cricket or where barriers to participation are especially high.
Development Manager Mark Frost said:
"One of the focus points for the Cricket Wales' team in the last year has been to help clubs create and set up more team-based opportunities especially in u9s and u11s teams. We've made a good start and are grateful to clubs and junior leagues for this improvement, but we know that we have so many children in the entry stages of clubs and on average we only have approximately one U9 and one U11 team per junior section. Some clubs haven't yet got these age groups in place so, while we are proud of these results again this year, we know there is much more work for us to do and we are committed to taking on the challenge.
"Our aim is to at least double this to create a wider pathway for all the many All Stars and Dynamos we have, to get playing game based cricket.
"Each club's own data will be replayed back in an individual follow up meeting over the Autumn and Winter to look at what gaps and opportunties can be developed in 2024."
Main Headlines:
Senior Cricket: both membership & teams have increased in all forms of cricket
Junior Cricket: all stars & dynamos slightly down but older age group junior cricket up by 9%
Transition of entry level to age group teams has increased significantly, ie age group teams have increased by:-
38% at U9s; 13% at U11s (and +14% across all age groups)
Women’s teams increased by 38% and girls’ teams by 32% YOY
Clubs are, yet again, more ethnically diverse (Senior BAME membership in affiliated clubs = 15.7%; Juniors = 11%)
Club committees are again more diverse
Women now account for 16% of club committee members;
Ethnic minority committee members up to 4.87%)
Activator & Coaching Workforce deployed in clubs increased by 23% on 2022.
Since 2013, all membership categories have grown by 53% in total.
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To find out more about your club's data and set out a plan to grow your club, please contact your Area Mangaer for a meeting over the close season.
To view some of the data and trends in this year's audit click
here