The Surrey Cricket Foundation (SCF) is supporting a project that aims to reuse cricket gear and distribute it to those in need, also increasing the life cycle of the equipment in the process. The project has been launched by Farnham’s Centre for Sustainable Design (CfSD) at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) and is made possible by the UK’s Strategic Priorities Fund.
Cricket gear reuse pilot projects, running in Surrey and Wandsworth, look to slash the cost of cricket gear to zero, promote a sustainable approach to the game, and engage a more socially diverse range of participants, including disadvantaged groups such as children in cash-strapped families, and adults on lower or irregular incomes.
Spencer CC, the childhood club of Gus Atkinson and Maddie Blinkhorn-Jones, Rowledge CC, home of Surrey’s Danielle Gregory, as well as Frensham CC, will be participating in the programme. These clubs will serve as drop-off and collection points to allow equipment to be donated and later picked up by those in need.
Donations of clean, usable youth and adult cricket gear, as well as the collection of the same, can be done at club pavilions on the dates below:
The programme aims to make use of discarded cricket gear through reuse, and not sending it to landfill. Discarded gear – a lot of it of good quality – includes gloves, caps, bats, and thigh and leg pads, and is often left and forgotten at a cricket club or at home in a loft, garage or shed.
The clubs will initially offer the donated gear to schools and disadvantaged groups or clubs before recreational players.
Surplus gear will also be made available to the participants in many of SCF’s programmes while all the helmets donated will be donated to Rwanda Cricket, whom Surrey have been supporting for multiple years in association with with cricket development charity, Cricket Builds Hope.
Martin Charter, CfSD Director, said: “It can be put to very good use. Donating discarded gear gives a great entry point into the sport for the young especially, and for others who see it as unaffordable.
“There are social, economic, and environmental benefits to what we are doing. Being a gear-intensive sport, cricket’s cost creates barriers to getting started, playing regularly, and improving skills, especially at the junior level.”
“Diverting gear from landfill reduces CO2 emissions by extending the life of the kit. Research by CfSD has indicated that more than 1,624 tonnes of cricket gear could be going to waste each year, even though a lot of it may be good quality and have lots of play left in it. A survey also indicates that 52% of people said they had to cut back on buying sports equipment due to the rising cost of living.”
To learn more about the programme, email at cmorris@surreycricket.com.
