Cricket Section Report to General Committee - November 2019

Important update: since the last submission of this report in April 2016, it is important to note that the Cricket Section has achieved one of its stated ‘long term objectives’ at that time, namely to secure full membership of Cricket Hong Kong (CHK), the governing body for the sport in the SAR, thus removing dependence on our previous association with the MCC club.

Mission Statement
In line with the heritage of the USRC ( the “Club”) as a recreational haven, the Cricket Section (the “Section”) seeks to support its proud sporting history and compete for honours across Hong Kong in line with this tradition, while provide opportunities to Members and the local community to enjoy the game of Cricket.

Objectives and Philosophy of the Cricket Section
Overall, the Section believes that it is important for its teams to be competitive with other clubs, so as to support the enjoyment of the sport.
The Section believes that participation in the highest respective Cricket Hong Kong (CHK) competitions provides the required framework to attract and retain high caliber players, and in turn allow our most senior teams to act as ambassadors to the whole Section.
With a strong “summit” in place, our Junior and Youth teams can clearly identify a ‘pathway’ or progress ladder, which will allow them to also play for the USRC at the highest level.
Thus, for the overall continued success of the Cricket Section it is important to have in place the players and coaching/ management resources to be able to support participation across all age groups and elite senior competitions.
Long term the Section will:

• Seek to maintain it’s playing resources by encouraging Members and their children to join and participate across all it’s teams.
  
• Run a strong Junior and Youth Development programme to both raise cricket skill levels, and also use the medium of sport to enhance the children’s sense of responsibility, appreciation of the value of teamwork, and ability to perform under pressure.
• In partnership with the Club’s Membership sub-committee and marketing department, implement appropriate initiatives to recruit new members to the Club, who can contribute high caliber performance and support coaching and management of the teams (Note - these activities dependent on Club decisions as regards Sports Membership).

On-going, the ever present near term priority of the Section is to maintain the necessary coaching and management resources to ensure that full support can be provide to all Junior and Youth development programmes and the co-ordination of these teams (see below Team Structure, the Section runs 4 ‘age group’ squads which require adult organisation and supervision - CHK stating a requirement for two adults at all matches to complete tasks such as scoring and umpiring, and to ensure that children are given appropriate care.)

Policies of the Section
Affiliation of the section:
The Cricket section is affiliated to CHK, the governing body of cricket in Hong Kong
Affiliation with other clubs:
A perennial issue for cricket in Hong Kong has been the availability of suitable venues, as the sport needs large and dedicated grounds, on which to play matches that are longer in duration to other team sports such as football and rugby. For several years CHK has been restricted in the extent to which it can develop the game, because the limited number of grounds places a relatively low and finite capacity of the number of games that can be played.
Against this backdrop, at the time when the Section was seeking to expand it’s participation, it was not possible for the Section to secure admission of teams to the highest levels of competition, because we were unable to provide a ‘home’ venue for our matches.
Thus in the 2012/13 season the Section entered into a partnership agreement with the long established Millennium Cricket Club (MCC), who had teams registered into both the CHK senior men’s Saturday and Sunday Leagues. Subsequently we participated under this registration as USRC/ MCC, though the Section had control of the teams and the relationship with the CHK.
In line with the objectives and development plan of the Section, maintaining this relationship was critical, as it provided the Section with access to the highest grade of cricket. This completed the ‘pathway’ for our younger players - without the partnership with MCC, we would have had a high risk of leakage of Junior and Youth talent nurtured in our development programmes (and would also not have been able to offer Members the opportunity to play at the elite level of cricket in Hong Kong).
Important update:
The Section has now secured a fully independent membership of CHK, and now operates exclusively as the USRC. As a result our Men’s teams, in particular, are playing in the leading competitions on Saturday and Sunday, and the Premier League T20.

Membership

• All members of the Club are warmly welcome to join the Section, which is able to provide coaching from age 8, and runs men’s and women teams.
  
• Members can participate in ‘social’ cricket via the Challenger League (in which we now have three teams competing, and whose financial contributions help support our development programme). Members may also reserve the cricket nets for personal practice, or coaching sessions.
  
• The Section also accepts Guest players from the wider community, so as to:

           > firstly, form squads and teams of the required playing caliber so as to allow Club Members to play at the level of their ability and thus participate in their chosen sport.
           > secondly, to provide access to sport to the wider community, and thus provide opportunities to enjoy the broad benefits this entails: The Section believes this is a particularly relevant contribution of the Junior and Youth teams.

Previously, though now subject to the on-going review of Sports Memberships (retained in this document for reference):
The Cricket Section supports the Club’s sports membership programmes, and believes it is necessary to maintain sporting standards

• As described for Guest members, Sports membership facilitates the same deliverables.
  
• In addition, Junior Associate Sports (JAS) membership enables young and talented individuals to become part of the Club, develop their skills and strengthen the caliber of Club teams.
  
• The Section believes that JAS is of particular help to families from less fortunate and poorer backgrounds, and that its encouragement should be supported as part of promoting sport in the wider community, and enabling the Club to deliver wider social responsibility objectives.
• Overall, as cricket is a team sport and to ensure that the teams are able to play at a competitive standard against relevant opposition, it necessary to take an approach to Cricket Section membership that allows players of appropriate caliber to become members, so as to build squads of c.15 players for each team.

In summary, Section membership profile as at November 2019:

Membership Profile	USRC Member	Guest	Total
Women	1	12	13
Men’s (elite)	1	25	26
Men’s (social)	0	45	45
Junior	Not Applicable	52	52
Coaches, Management and Committee	6	2	8
Other Section Members (not included above)	18	Not Applicable	18

Cricket Section
February Selection
Each team has an allocated coach and manager/ administrator, who make selection decisions based on performance and training attendance.

Sponsorship
The Section does not have any permanent sponsorship arrangements, though from time to time will receive some donations from companies associated with the Section and its players; this money may be used, for example, to subsidies the cost of playing kit, in return for the use of a company logo
as per discussion at the Sports Committee meeting, October 2019, the Section will support the Club in putting in place “agreement letters” with any sponsors.

Charity and Community

• The Cricket section aims to organise and undertake at least one fund raising event every 12 months - This event will have a primary objective of supporting a locally based charity which has strong connections to the playing community of the Cricket section, especially within Kowloon.
• An inaugural event was held in February 2016, with a sponsored Junior and Women’s 6-aside fun day raising $10,000 for Christian Action.
• This partnership has been successfully extended for three further years, resulting in a contribution of $14,000 donated to Christian Action as a result of the 2019 Junior Sixes.
• The Cricket Section currently does not actively promote sport outside the Club, however it supports the principle that the Club should do so, e.g. by making its sports facilities available for use by schools and other organisations outside of non-peak times.

Conduct

• In line with its affiliation to the CHK, which in turn acts as the governing body of cricket in Hong Kong and the organiser of all local competitions, the Cricket section complies with the Code of Conduct of the CHK.
• In addition, the Cricket section reinforces cornerstone principles regarding the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ and player conduct, through it’s own age-appropriate codes of conduct.
• All guest players are clearly reminded of the standards of behaviour that are required when on Club premises, and when representing the Club.
• The Section reviews any breaches of conduct through a core group of Section representatives, namely the Convenor, Secretary, Treasurer and CHK Liaison Officer.

Team Structure and League Participation
The Cricket Section has undergone significant expansion since the 2012/13 season, prior to which it was running only two teams (U-17 and ‘social’).
Teams now represent the Club across all competitions, including both the highest available Men’s leagues, all possible Junior and Youth ‘age groups’, and Women’s cricket, as follows:

• Men’s Sunday Championship
• Men’s Saturday Championship
• Men’s Premier League 1-Day and T20
• Men’s Three teams in Challenger leagues (1x Div.2; and 2x Div.3)
• Women’s League and T20 Cup
• Youth U-17 Premier League
• Youth U-15 Premier League
• Junior U-13 Premier League
• Junior U-11 Pairs Pairs League and Elite Championship

Junior Development Programmes
Junior and Youth development applies to age-groups U-11 and U-13, and U-15 and U-17 respectively.

Children can be introduced to Cricket through the Section’s Saturday morning ‘Gunners’ training programme. This is suitable for both boys and girls, from age 8, and takes the form of 1 hour sessions which cover the basic core skills of batting, bowling and fielding. This is supervised by Head Coach, Ilyas Gul.
After completing the initial ‘Gunners’ training, children can move onto more advanced training on Saturday mornings, practicing with Incredi balls and preparing for league matches.
From U-13 age group, matches are played with the traditional Hard ball, and specific training sessions are run. These are held in the Club cricket nets, with the required protective equipment, so as to ensure the safety of all players.
As stated in the Objectives, the Section believes it is critical for the development of the section that there is a strong development programme, as this provides the pipeline of junior cricketers, who will in turn move forward into the senior teams.
Furthermore, support and investment in Junior and Youth cricket aligns the Section with the objectives of the CHK.
The Section has a small number of technical assistant coaches (who are also senior elite players) who support this development programme.
As of writing this report, it is noteworthy that the investment made by the Section in this programme has delivered considerable success, and thus profile for the Club. In the previous six seasons since the commencement of the programme our U11 group has reached 5 finals, and become Champions 3 times; and our U13 group are the reigning Hong Kong Champions.

Women’s
The Section established a Women’s squad in 2015, and has successfully completed a full programmes of CHK league and cup matches during the subsequent seasons.
Support and investment in Women’s cricket aligns the Section with the objectives of the CHK.
2019/20 Season Priorities:

1. Work with the Club to enhance the marketing of the junior development programmes, to raise the levels of participation by Member’s children.
2. In line with CHK objectives to broaden the appeal of cricket within the local community, work with the Club to enhance the marketing of the Cricket Section and encourage Members from the Hong Kong Chinese community to participate.
3. Continue to reinforce the Junior development programme through the participation of appropriate coaches and senior players to provide the necessary technical assistance to enhance skills and performance.

Notes - Technical Assistant Coaches and Development Programme
There are long term examples from KCC and HKCC that the retention of technical assistant coaches can support the creation of strong development programmes, which in turn can to a great extent become both self-funding, and also a potential revenue driver for the wider Club (e.g. in terms of increased F&B takings). Furthermore, the appointment of a technical assistant coaches can enable the Section and Club to work in partnership to develop an ‘out-reach’ programme to local schools and promote sport in the community.

Cricket Section
February 2020