Surrey and the Kia Oval hosted their fifth, annual Pride T20 match day, celebrating the vibrant LGBTQ+ community in cricket, as the Three Feathers put on the fireworks on the pitch, with Bryony Smith’s side claiming a comprehensive win over Essex and Sam Curran’s team falling narrowly short in a Kia Oval classic against Hampshire Hawks.
Proud Surrey, the Club’s official LGBTQ+ supporters’ group, brought their cheers and support to both matches, while Out4Cricket – a cricket advocacy and community-building group that is working to build an inclusive environment where the LGBTQ+ community can play, connect, and thrive – joined us at the ground.
“We think Pride games are important from the perspective of showing allyship, showing welcome, and helping to be really visible in saying to the community that they are welcome to come through the doors and watch cricket at Surrey, but that cricket as a sport more broadly is welcome to them,” says Lachlan Smith from Out4Cricket.
“For many people in the LGBTQ community, coming to a game of cricket, or coming to a sports arena, or being involved in sports, can be quite intimidating still. To have a club as big as Surrey to show their allyship and to show that coming here can be an inclusive experience is really important. It helps get more people into cricket,” Lachlan continues.
Speaking about the significance of consulting the community for organising Pride games, Lachlan says, “We always say to clubs, and Surrey is a good example of this, that if you’re going to do Pride games, then consult with the community as much as you can, but also make sure that your Pride game is part of a broader set of initiatives and a set of work that you’re doing with the community to get people involved.”
“With Surrey, we’re doing all these cricket sessions, where the club is supplying coaches and giving their time to create opportunities for people.”
For the last two winters, Surrey Cricket Foundation have run cricket taster sessions in collaboration with Out4Cricket. This summer, they have taken them outdoors to Kennington Park, with sessions running to the end of July every week on a Thursday from 6pm to 8pm. “We’ve never really done much outdoor nets because usually during the summer all the facilities are already taken, so this is a really nice opportunity to do some outdoor sessions,” adds Lachlan.
To find out more about these sessions or get involved, contact Harjot Sidhu at hsidhu@surreycricket.com. To learn more about Out4Cricket, visit https://out4cricket.org.uk/
At the heart of these sessions is “the idea is to create a space where people from the community can either come and try cricket for the first time, or they might have played cricket before and now want to come back and try it again. Or they might be experienced cricketers, LGBT cricketers, but who want to meet other LGBTQ people in the game and other cricketers in the game.”
Talking about the success of the sessions, he continues, “We’re trying to get people more involved in cricket in a way that suits them, and have started to build up a little bit of a community through that work. People are getting to know each other and they keep returning to play, which is fantastic.”
Speaking about the Pride match, Surrey wicket-keeper-batter Kira Chathli also comments, “It’s important that we send this message, and the Club sends the message that it doesn’t matter who you are and where you come from; it is important to be proud of that and join in with such a great sporting community,” with fast bowler Reece Topley adding, “The Pride match at the Kia Oval is quite important to show that cricket is a game for everyone, and everyone is welcome here.”
Vauxhall is home to one of the largest LGBTQ+ communities in the country, and the Club is committed to supporting that community, which continues to suffer discrimination and exclusion at various levels in the game. The annual fixture aims to show and share the message that the Kia Oval and Surrey are open, welcoming and inclusive to all people.
