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The Equality and Human Rights Commission has teamed up with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to get thousands of women, girls and people from ethnic minority backgrounds involved in cricket.

This is part of a major new initiative being launched yesterday which also aims to provide better access to cricket grounds for disabled people.

Some groups, particularly women, girls, ethnic minorities and disabled people have disproportionately low rates of participation in cricket as players, spectators, volunteers, officials and employees.

The Commission’s initiative aims to address low participation from diverse groups in cricket by:

• promoting best practice on how to tackle discriminatory behaviour across all functions and services;
• ensuring teams and spectators reflect their communities;
• improving accessibility to sporting venues for disabled people;

These objectives will be achieved by cricket clubs taking specific actions such as running sports camps for women, girls and ethnic minorities, recruiting more staff to run sessions from those groups, providing support and mentorship for these groups, and linking in with schools, local authorities and regional sports boards to promote their activities and encourage participation.

The Commission’s funding (£450,000) will help ECB recruit 540 new ethnic minority coaches, provide opportunities for 7,500 women and girls to play cricket across 100 cricket clubs and audit 16 first class county cricket grounds for disability access.

Chris Holmes, former champion Paralympic swimmer and Disability Commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:

“Cricket is a fantastic way of bringing people together whatever their backgrounds and providing great health benefits. Everyone should have the same opportunity to get involved in the game regardless of their ability, gender or social background.

“Big and small clubs are uniquely placed to help tackle inequality in sports due to their links into local communities. Sport inspires young people, and not just with dreams of becoming an athlete; it can influence how they approach everyday decisions and equip them with life-changing skills.

“We look forward to working with ECB to grow cricket across diverse communities and get more people involved as participants and coaches.”

Minister for Sport Tracey Crouch said:

“This is a fantastic initiative that will encourage thousands more women to participate in cricket and increase the number of coaches from ethnic minority backgrounds to help grow the game at the grassroots. I am delighted that the funding will also improve accessibility and the match-day experience for disabled supporters at cricket grounds across the country. It's a great partnership between the ECB and EHRC and I wish it every success.”

For further information please contact the Commission’s media office on 0161 829 8102, out of hours 07767 272 818.

Notes to editors

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a statutory body established under the Equality Act 2006. It is an independent body responsible for protecting and promoting equality and human rights in Great Britain. It aims to encourage equality and diversity, eliminate unlawful discrimination, and promote and protect human rights. The Commission enforces equality legislation on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation. It encourages compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998 and is accredited by the UN as an ‘A status’ National Human Rights Institution.