ECB had agreed to distribute £4m funding in 2014 between 3 cities and Leicestershire Cricket were one of the clubs, who were going to apply for this funding, which was earmarked to promote cricket within the South Asian and Caribbean communities.

In order to achieve this objective and to apply for this funding Leicestershire County Cricket Club decided to approach BD Patel and Pratap Odedra to form an organisation. It was important for the County, the South Asian and Afro Caribbean communities to work under one umbrella to resolve issues relating to cricket.

BD Patel approached all the clubs to join this organisation and we had our first meeting at Highfield Rangers Ground on August 2014. At this meeting it was explained to everyone what the objectives were and what the benefits were. Gulfraz Riaz (Part of CCC) attended this meeting to explain the benefits of forming NACC (National Asian Cricket Council) organisation who are now working in Partnership ECB as advisor. He also explained creating this group in Leicester will add values to local cricketing community.

The next task was to agree the name of the organisation, In Meeting again at Highfield Rangers in November 2014 derived name of the group, which was SAACCO (South Asian Afro Caribbean Cricket Organisation). We were subsequently advised by Laura Joyce that this name wasn’t appropriate since its benefit of inner city cricket teams and suggested the name LCCDO (Leicester City Cricket Development Organisation). This name was unanimously agreed by the members of the committee and hence adopted. It’s important that we mention Laura Joyce; she made a lot of effort in setting up this organisation. Her hard work and motivation was key part for setting up this organisation in the right direction.

We had a meeting with Wasim Khan, who recently was appointed as the new CEO for Leicestershire County Cricket Club. Wasim wanted to help the LCCDO but in return he expected more involvement and participation from the local ethnic communities. It was agreed at meeting that the County would donate £10,000 to the LCCDO once the bank account was setup. LCCC engagement over they years has benefitted the LCCDO in many ways. Currently Mark Barber successor Martyn Dobson and Dave Alan of All start cricket had many local youth to progress further.

This money was subsequently distributed to 13 clubs based on a criteria agreed by the committee i.e. the Pitch Covers, Screens, Ropes etc towards improvement of ground facilities. All in all £6,500 spent on improving the facilities at the grounds, money well spent. There was also an issue about the ground criteria by the league. This funding helped a lot of clubs with meet the criteria set by the league to climb up the ladder.

Laura Joyce was offered a Job with ECB and Martin Dobson her successor ensured that one member of the committee was included on the league to represent the LCCDO members to deal with all issues. Pratap was appointed and dealt with a number of issues, ground criteria, the issue of putting all Asian clubs in one division and various other issues the clubs had to their benefit.

LCCDO have successfully organised the Community cup for the last three years and has been extremely popular within the organisation. The first tournament was won by the Caribbean, the second was won by YMA and the last one was won by Fatana. We will continue with this in the future and continue to make this better and more successful. The next task was to hold a meeting to form a committee and Pratap Odedra was elected as Chairman, Shiraz Khan as Vice Chairman, B D Patel as Treasurer.

Pratap Odedra Chairman – carried on with holding regular meetings with group to move forward. This is a very difficult job to deal with a number of issues simultaneously, the league, the County and the members. At the same engaging LCCC and City council in section 106 funding project which now being utilised at St Oswald road new parks Leicester. Shiraz Khan – Vice Chairman was given the task of getting the constitution written and agreed with the Laura and subsequently with Martin Dobson. This was a difficult job to get all parties on board and an agreement, but the target was achieved in the end.

B D Patel – Treasurer BD had to get a bank account open, not an easy task because the bank wanted to see a copy of the constitution which was in the process of getting being written. We could not open the account until this was sorted. In the end everything was resolved successfully.

The LCCDO achievement as follows and we are currently looking at some issues which we still need to addresseed:-

• Applied for lottery funding unfortunately we didn’t succeed due to the criteria set by the lottery funding agency. Their focus was on Community Centres in villages.
• Many of the Clubs received Loans and grants from the L&RCL leagues to improve their ground facilities.
• Ground criteria and marking was improved hence lots of Asian clubs are now playing in higher divisions.
• LCCDO started the subscriptions for membership.
• We are shortly opening an LCCDO office in Highgate to obtain funding for the clubs from the business community with help of TEAMS.
• Engage youth and women into cricket development programmes.
• Increase participation for LCCDO and introduce more Asian coaches.
• Develop a policy to engage with Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council to source grounds on long term lease for the Clubs to develop.
• Highlight Grounds and discuss with Victoria Ball.