Berkshire Cricket Foundation

Berkshire were winners of the 'County Board of the Year Award' at the annual Chance to Shine Awards evening at Lords Cricket Ground on Thursday Evening.

Berkshire had been nominated twice before for the award which was judged against the other 39 county boards delivering across the UK, but the Chance to Shine judging panel chose Berkshire as the winners in 2022 with the following citation . . .

"Once again Berkshire Cricket Foundation have enjoyed a very successful year delivering great results across all Chance To Shine programmes. Their success is underpinned by a workforce that reflects their local communities and a can-do approach to making things happen that has the participant at the heart of the activities. This year BCF have delivered in 94 primary schools and eight secondary schools to 9,800 children. A real highlight has been their 8 Street projects, allowing more than 275 children across Slough, Reading and Maidenhead to play and learn through cricket. Characteristic of their attitude was the support they offered both hosting a Chance To Shine team event and supporting the MCC Open Day at Lords, bringing their workforce along to ensure that the children attending had a really memorable experience."

The key to any successful Chance to Shine programme is the coaches who deliver across schools and street projects throughout the year and Berkshire's team especially Ameena Firyad, Raabia Akhter, Nick Holroyd, Hammad Ali, Jack Narraway, Jahngir Zaman and Dan Williams deserve huge credit for the hundreds of hours of delivery across the year.

Berkshire were also runners up in the 'Street Project of the Year' award for our Slough Girls Street Project on which Ameena and Raaia have done an amazing job in creating a project which has 'broken down barriers in the community by providing an opportunity for young girls to get active, improve their cricket skills an develop key life and social skill. The projects coaches Raabia and Ameena are fantastic role models for participants. They demonstrate that women can participate in sports and have opportunities to develop within cricket as players and coaches"

In 2022/23 Berkshire will be running a record 11 street cricket projects across Reading, Maidenhead and Slough and you can be involved for free, find out more here . . .