Cricket@Warwick Review

An Overview

Prior to 1998 the University cricket pitches were based on central campus and the AU Pavilion was based right next to the pitches. In 1998 the current Cryfield Sports Pavilion was opened and thus the sports pitches were relocated. Cryfield would prove to be a standout sports facility within higher education in the UK, which still boasts some of the best pitches in the sector. Unfortunately for the cricket community the decision was taken to position the pavilion 300-500 metres away from the pitches which is against Sport England guidance when building a multi-sport facility and extremely rare in cricketing circles. For over 10 years the various cricket teams at Warwick have struggled to provide the type of home cricketing experience to its players, opposition, spectators or officials that they deserve.

Cricket is played by 120 million players across the globe, making it the world's second most popular sport.

Warwick plays various forms of the game from 20 overs to 55 overs which can last between 3-8 hours.

Warwick has enjoyed a rich history of cricketing participation currently boasting over 30 teams in various forms and until very recently had four pitches. Maths & Stats cricket pitch has since been built over and Warwick HRI has slipped into a state of disrepair.

There is a great deal of frustration within Warwick's cricketing community highlighted by the fact the University's Mens (BUCS) first team have opted to play home games at Leamington CC and the Staff & Post Graduate Sunday team to play the vast majority of their fixtures away from home.

There is universal agreement within the Cricketing community that the pitches are outstanding but the main Sports Pavilion is too far away and the mini pavilions/scoring huts are not appropriate.

The mission...

For Warwick and our partners to provide appropriate home pitch side facilities comparable to Russell Group colleagues for Cricket matches and to support existing sporting activities such as Football, Rugby and Lacrosse in addition to any other internal University and external community bookings

University of Warwick - Cricket Pavilion

Coventry University - Cricket Pavilion

The purpose of this page...

This page is designed to be an area where information concerning the current and potential future cricket facilities provision within the University of Warwick is captured. It includes reference to our Russell Group colleagues in addition to key University MCCU.

Also included is feedback relating to our current facilities from Warwickshire Cricket Board/ECB and the Cricket 2015 Survey results.

The University of Warwick currently has two cricket pitches and a 3 bay cricket net which is part of the University's Cryfield Centre which caters for outdoor field sports such as Football, Lacrosse, Rugby Union/League and Cricket.

Who are we?

The Cricket@Warwick Review Working Group

Chris Wood - Warwick Sport Cricket Activator and ITS LiB XI Cricket Team Captain

Joe Barr - Warwick Sport Cricket Activator and ITS LiB XI Cricket Team committee member

Dean McIlwraith - ITS LiB XI Cricket Team Club Captain

Brian Nairn - ECB Level 2 Cricket Coach

Lincoln Alison - Honorary President (Staff and PG Cricket Club)

Steve Lamb - Grounds Liaison (Staff and PG Cricket Club)

Robert Kraus - President of the University of Warwick Men’s Cricket Club

Students Union Sports Officer - TBC

Students Union - Disabled Students' Officer - TBC

Warwickshire Cricket Board Representative - TBC

Neil Garland - Warwickshire Cricket League Grounds Liaison Officer

What are the current challenges and their consequences?

No showers, toilets, running water or wash basins
No wheelchair access to pitchside due to uneven ground and lack of parking/paving
No disabled toilets pitchside
No interior lighting or exterior security lighting
Insufficient space for two teams plus kit and officials to change
No kitchen facility with electricity to provide hot/cold food or drinks offering
Insufficient space for two teams, their kit plus officials to shelter in inclement weather such as rain, wind and direct sunlight - some teams bring their own gazebo or shelter in their cars...
Lack of secure grounds and team equipment storage facility - 5 bags of kit held in team captains car boots all year round...
Lack of local car parking facilities for the Lakeside and Roadside Cricket pitch
No social space for teas, spectators or opportunity to socialise before, during or after games
Loss of most energetic and motivated players to local Cricket Clubs in Coventry, Stoneleigh, Warwick, Leamington and Kenilworth
Clubs express a lack of willingness to play at Warwick and do not look forward to visiting us
Players have been forced to make emergency toilet trips into the bushes adjacent to the pitches
Senior (in both age and experience) umpires have been forced to walk up to 15-20 minutes to access toilet facilities and/or purchase cold drinks and snacks due to the Sport Pavilion being closed.
The Sports Pavilion and it's externally accessible toilets have been locked during fixtures
Embarrassment of current cricketing community when hosting away teams, this can be very demotivating
A lower than optimal level of pitch and facility utilisation - externals won't book because they need a minimum facility level
A near total absence of female cricketers competing in Warwick teams or indeed fielding a Women's side at all
Little to no community engagement in cricket as a sport, insufficient facilities to host junior/colts cricket matches or tournaments
Little to no spectators for matches despite having a great location to enjoy cricket...no shelter, no viewing positions, no bar...
Pay and display to park, some players have had to leave mid match to pay for tickets and on one occasion 3 cars had windows smashed and two laptops were stolen - would not happen if parking was local to ground and in sight of pavilions/CCTV
No availability to park anymore thanks to the removal of Car Park 3 and the spaces at the Milking Parlour
Almost impossible to host extended overs cricket, T20 being a realistic limit without major prior planning and inconvenience
Damaged scoreboards that no longer work and have broken numbers and missing letters
The pavilions are physically showing signs of degradation and no annual maintenance works (broken and damaged wooden panels, broken windows etc)
Broken and missing chairs and tables
No removal of rubbish or tidying up from the previous fixture
Heavy, dirty and extremely noisy when moving sightscreens
No boundary ropes
Missing bins and damaged "swing back" stumps
No repairs conducted to the outdoor nets facilities nor improvements to anti-vermin protection, pole cladding or pitch markings
Ball collection and safety netting permanently tied up and not able to be deployed
Legacy and broken/unsafe equipment and soiled clothing and shoes left within the facility for years to rot/clutter the space

Facilities - guidance

Below are some features relating to ECB and Sport England guidance on what a great pavilion should look like and the design considerations needed.

ECB Guidance - Overview

ECB Guidance - TS5 Document - Pavilions and Clubhouses

ECB Guidance - National Club Strategy

ECB Guidance - Grant Aid Funding Sources

ECB Guidance - TS3 Document - Indoor Facilities

Sport England - Pavilions and Clubhouse guidance

English Federation of Disability Sport:Access for all

Warwick Lacrosse Feedback "We can see the benefits of it for other sports, in particular cricket, considering the main Cryfield facility is a bit of a distance away. Warwick hold between around 2-3 tournaments a year, so in those cases the facilities would be beneficial."

David Robinson - on behalf of Coventry and North Warwickshire CC and former Cricket Development Manager for Warwickshire CC

"The pavilion certainly is too far away from both pitches but especially the further one (Lakeside) of the two. This makes tea time very problematic and we had to bring all the food to the side of the pitch on a number of occasions. A cup of tea was therefore out of the question! Many players did not shower after the game preferring to go back to CNW. The cost of hiring the pitch was also very expensive and not worth the charge in my opinion. We have since secured a pitch elsewhere which accommodates our need far better"

"As far as I can see, most, if not all of the other sports pitches at Warwick are very well catered for except cricket! It is a great shame because the two pitches there have tremendous potential but certain things need to happen first."

LastMan Stands - Warwickshire
"The pitch itself was fantastic with a great outfield. Both teams had to change on the boundary due the changing room being rather small. It would be brilliant if the facility could be moved closer to the playing area"

Disability, health, safety & gender equality

Warwick Ladies Cricket Club

What happened to the Warwick Ladies Cricket Club?

The University prior to 2013 had a Ladies cricket team that competed in BUCS (both indoor and outdoor), Varsity and Intermural competitions. The club in the past were very active having two BUCS squads and won Club of the year in 2004. Unfortunately the club closed down in 2013. Pitch side facilities at Cryfield surely have had a negative effect on the perception of the game here at Warwick.

Universities should encourage more girls to take up sport by being more sympathetic to the image-conscious world that young women grow up in. Sport England acknowledged that improvements in facilities could make a significant difference to women’s inclination to play sport, and their were concerns that for some women, such as Muslim women and those with disabilities, a lack of appropriate facilities was a major barrier to participation.

Reference Materials

Women in sport report

Womens Club Cricket - Warwickshire

Women and Sport - Factsheet

Mapping Disability

Warwick Women's Cricket Alumni Feedback

"Not having toilets was a real issue and should be essential for women's sport. Because of the distance to the main pavilion we struggled to cater for after match tea. Kits are really heavy to lug around so a place to store it that's well ventilated as otherwise the pads get really sweaty and smelly and are horrible to put on next time."

Toilet Issues

Case studies:
- A medical school student was unable to join the medics cricket team in 2015 due to have IBD where he required immediate access to toilets
- Another player from ITSLIB CC during the Corporate Games suffered a IBD flare up and had to run to the main pavilion toilets in front of hundreds of people
- A player had to use the bushes to relieve himself on one occasion suffering from bowel urgency
- Current players urinate wherever they can

There are several groups of people, including people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, who need easy access to toilets so I wonder if there might be an argument by way of the Equality Act 2010 which protects people who access goods, facilities or services from direct discrimination on the basis of a ‘protected characteristic’- disability being one of these protected characteristics.

The following link discusses disability discrimination, in particular indirect discrimination which means that a policy, criterion or practice is applied in the same way to all individuals, but that policy has an effect that particularly disadvantages disabled people.

The business would need to show that the policy can be objectively justified in other words, it must be a fair and reasonable way of achieving a legitimate aim.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/85008/business-quickstart.pdf

Discrimination and private members clubs may be applicable: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/85008/business-quickstart.pdf

The following organisations may be able to offer assistance:

Sport England

“all sports facilities should have at least one clearly signposted unisex accessible WC cubicle on every floor of the facility. Unisex provision allows people of either sex to give assistance, which is not possible when the accessible toilet provision is part of a dedicated male or female area.... Every part of a sports facility, including the pool or field, should be within 40m of a unisex accessible WC..... The scale and type of the facility will determine the number of accessible toilets."

https://www.sportengland.org/facilities-planning/

Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
Promoting equality and help for people who have been discriminated against.

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com

The British Toilet Association Limited
Provide help and assistance not just to specialist user groups who suffer from medical conditions that may require immediate access to the toilet.

http://www.britloos.co.uk/

Building regulations for toilets: http://www.gov.scot/resource/buildingstandards/2016NonDomestic/chunks/ch04s13.html

Citizen’s Advice Bureau

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice

Our Students with IBD – A Guide for Universities has some general advice for Universities on their responsibilities to students with IBD so there may be some useful information in there that you can use, so I have attached a copy.

The Warwick University Student Union

https://www.warwicksu.com/

Student Disability Services may be worth approaching as well: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/tutors/disability/contactus/

BUCS Disability Sport

Peer review with other Universities

University

RG?

MCCU?

Cric. pavilion?

Toilets/showers/power?

Nets?

Parking?

Birmingham

Yes

Bristol

Yes

Cambridge

Yes

Cardiff

Yes

Coventry

Durham

Yes

Edinburgh

Yes

Exeter

Yes

Glasgow

Yes

Oxford

Queens Belfast

Yes

UCL

Yes

Warwick

Yes

Imperial

Yes

Kings College

Yes

Leeds

Yes

Liverpool

Yes

Loughbrough

Yes

LSE

Yes

Manchester

Yes

Newcastle

Yes

Nottingham

Yes

Oxford

Yes

Queen Mary

Yes

Sheffield

Yes

Southampton

Yes

York

Yes

Our recommendations for April 2016 onwards...

Install 1x 4ft by 4ft portable chemical toilet to each of the Cryfield Cricket Pavilions (Roadside and Lakeside) - meeting minimum Health and Safety requirements - ESSENTIAL
Install 1x 150W solar power stations to each of the Cryfield Cricket Scoring Huts (Roadside and Lakeside) - Providing interior lighting plus an exterior security light in addition to low power charging/power of portable electronic devices - ESSENTIAL
Install 1x of either a external drinkable water tap or bottled water cooler (power requirements accepted) to each of the Cryfield Cricket Scoring Huts (Roadside and Lakeside) - ESSENTIAL
Replace the existing legacy (heavy) covers used upon the Lakeside Cricket pitch (as per those much lighter units recently deployed upon the Roadside Cricket pitch) - ESSENTIAL
Service the very heavy and noisy sightscreens on both pitches or replace with lightweight mesh roller based systems - ESSENTIAL
Provide additional wet/hot weather protection through the deployment of permanent wooden gazebos adjacent to each of the Cryfield Cricket Scoring Huts (Roadside and Lakeside) similar to this product (stained to match existing building) - DESIRABLE
Provide at least 1x 4/6 seater picnic bench to each of the Cryfield Cricket Scoring Huts (Roadside and Lakeside) similar to this product (stained to match existing building) - ESSENTIAL
Replace existing scoreboards with units that do not require assembly before play commences - DESIRABLE
Check and replenish the existing First Aid Kits supplied within both of the scoring huts - ESSENTIAL
Check and replenish the cricket equipment held in the scoring huts or remove as desired - ESSENTIAL
Deploy an ID card based auto open/close system to the gate protecting the access road to the Lakeside Cricket Pitch - DESIRABLE
Provide a key (to Activator and nominated deputy) to the gate protecting the access road to the Lakeside Cricket Pitch - ESSENTIAL
Provide a key (to Activator and nominated deputy) to the Roadside Cricket Scoring Hut - ESSENTIAL
Confirm that vastly increased car parking will be allowed at the Lakeside Cricket Pitch - ESSENTIAL
Install a 2nd large bin to each of the Cryfield Cricket Scoring Huts (Roadside and Lakeside) - ESSENTIAL
Deploy ball stop netting to both Roadside (especially with positioning of artificial pitch) & Lakeside Cricket pitches to prevent loss of expensive match balls/wasted game time - ESSENTIAL
Work to improve the underfoot surface of the path that leads to the Lakeside Cricket Pitch - DESIRABLE
Indoor - order 4x additional full length cricket matting for indoor nets and matches to replace existing tired facility and/or allow for double matting to more closely mirror outdoor batting and bowling conditions - DESIRABLE
Indoor - replace/repair trolley poles as existing ones are bent and damaged and are a Health and Safety risk - ESSENTIAL
Clarify what provision (if any) will be put in place in relation to Cricket activities once the new Sports Centre has been built, with a particular focus on indoor nets and indoor fixtures, additionally will a 3rd pitch be incorporated into the new playing fields that are expected to be created at the same time? - ESSENTIAL
Explore the possibility of increased use of the Coventry University Cricket Facilities through central funding? Maybe this could be seen as an additional resource that Warwick could tap into? A pseudo 3rd ground? - ESSENTIAL
Funding - What provision of central funding will be offered to provide the Interdepartmental run Rock Up and Play Indoor Cricket Matches and to support the Rock Up and Play weekly nets sessions - ESSENTIAL
Free of charge pitch bookings - Current pitch hire fees of £90/200 plus will provide a barrier to participation plus an additional overhead on Captains/Activators

Our recommendations to achieve a suitable cricket facility

New large pavilion situated between Roadside and Lakeside?
Two new medium sized pavilions replacing/supplementing existing Roadside and Lakeside Scoring Huts?
Two new medium-large sized pavilions replacing/supplementing existing Roadside and Lakeside Scoring Huts?
Electronic scoreboards?
Provision for car parking at both pavilions using existing access roads and extending/reopening presently closed/restricted routes?
2.4 x 4.8m per car allowance for each vehicle, perhaps up to 12 spaces?
As regards parking, perhaps the use of ground protection grids to protect the grass and preserve a more natural look, reduced cost and improved drainage whilst being more asthetically pleasing.
Pavilion design concepts/info
What could it all look like?

Funding options?

Estimated costings of 125K +VAT per pavilion plus any sundries....

Large corporate sponsorship and branding/naming rights
Fund raising exercises
National Lottery grants
Sport England funding
Grant aid options - WCB could guide us?
Part funding from Warwick Sport
District Cricket Boards
Coventry City Council
Local businesses
Onsite CCSG businesses
Chance to shine?

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