12th March 2021
| Leshia Hawkins
Cricket Wales welcomes the First Minister’s announcement of lunchtime today, Friday 12th March, and we are particularly grateful to the Welsh Government for their decision to allow the opening of outdoor sports facilities for use, in the short-term, by up to 4 people from a maximum of 2 households, in a socially-distant manner.
We will now work urgently to review and interpret the Welsh Government guidance associated with today’s announcement and specifically what it means for cricket. We will then agree the guidance for Cricket in Wales with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which will be posted as soon as possible on Cricket Wales’ social channels, and sent direct to clubs through their Area Manager contacts.
Cricket Wales CEO, Leshia Hawkins, commented, “This is obviously fantastic news for sport in Wales and we are optimistic this represents the first steps to our return to more formal cricket activity and friendly and competitive matches in the coming weeks.
“We remain indebted to colleagues at Welsh Government, Sport Wales and the Welsh Sports Association (WSA) for their commitment to promoting the benefits of sport and its low-risk profile. Cricket has long stated its desire to be part of the solution to the public health crisis, and we are excited that players, especially our youngsters, look set to be permitted to return to playing with their friends in their clubs in the coming weeks.
“In the meantime, I would like to urge our clubs and participants to read and fully digest the guidance for Wales as soon as we are in a position to publish it; it will reflect what cricket activity is permissible in Wales in the next 2 weeks and the precautions we must all take to ensure participant safety, to retain public confidence and to repay the faith put in the sports sector today by the Welsh Government."
Further guidance for clubs, participants, coaches and volunteers will be issued in the coming weeks, when the Welsh Government formally confirms further easing of restrictions in relation to grassroots sport, as alluded to in today's announcement, in particular with regards to organised outdoor activity for children, which it is hoped will be able to commence from 27th March, if public health conditions continue to be favourable.