Disability forum arranged

Ian Martin, Nick Brown and Bobby Denning get together

The ECB disability development team travelled to Headingley Carnegie recently to establish a northern regional development forum.

In the spirit of 'One Game', the ECB is making great strides in establishing cricket for people with disabilities throughout the whole of England, rather than the isolated pockets where it currently flourishes, by establishing four forums covering the north, the south and west, the midlands, and London and the east.

The chair of each forum will report to the regional development management group and the ECB disability management committee.

However, it quickly became apparent that the north is going to be doing things rather differently, partly due to the great size of the area to be covered, but mostly because it has already established so many more disabled cricket teams and organisations.

At present virtually half of all young people with disabilities being coached in schools nationally are in the north. There will, therefore, be as many as five development groups across this region, the chair of each of which will report to the regional chair.

The vast majority of the northern players in the physical and learning disability groups come from the three counties which take part in the annual county championship - Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire - all of whom have progressed to a level where they are now fielding two teams each, one at hardball level and one using the Incrediball.

It is intended that Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria should be able to tap into the experience and expertise of their colleagues, ultimately to form their own teams at county level.

The north region already has several disability teams

The biggest problem at the moment is the gap between what can be achieved at schools, both mainstream and specialised, and the county levels. There are few, if any, cricket clubs for disabled people in the same way that there are for able-bodied cricketers.

The ECB initiative to encourage mainstream clubs to coach people with disabilities and to have them take part in standard matches is starting to make a real difference, but only when people with physical and learning disabilities play against each other can they truly compete.

The deaf, in the main, can compete perfectly well with able-bodied players, whereas the blind cricketers have entirely different needs for their particular game. In any one geographical area it is always going to be difficult to establish a cricket club purely for people with physical and learning disabilities because they are, mostly, spread far and wide with less readily available transport.

It is not an insurmountable problem, but it is not one which is open to any 'quick fix'. Other games tend to be more readily available to people with disabilities because they are either individual ones, such as tennis or bowls, or because smaller numbers are needed to have an enjoyable game.

Assembling 22 to 26 people with physical and/or learning disabilities who play cricket to a similar standard, all available on the same day, is not a task to be undertaken lightly.

ECB have made it clear that they are prepared, through the county boards, to continue to fund and support cricket for people with disabilities at all levels as they have already been doing.

However, if disability cricket is going to achieve its potential it will need the support of all those involved in the development of disability sport, and cricket in particular, to make it happen.