Cricket clubs could not exist without the help of volunteers. All across the country, thousands of people give up their time so that matches can be played and cricket clubs can continue to be places of community. The people who volunteer are known as The Cricket Collective.

For Volunteers’ Week 2025, we are celebrating the roles that people play in keeping their cricket club active. Volunteering can take many forms, from coaching, groundskeeping, safeguarding, umpiring, scoring, and much more.

A massive thank you goes out to all of the Cricket Collective throughout Gloucestershire and the City of Bristol for everything they do.

In Volunteers’ Week we shine a light on just a few individuals who support their cricket clubs. If their stories inspire you to get involved, consider speaking with your committee about how you can make a positive impact on your club.

Despite having no one in his family who played cricket prior, Olly fell in love with the game after trying it at school. From the age of 12, he has been involved in cricket in one form or another and is now a volunteer at Cirencester Cricket Club.

Olly started as a coach before becoming part of the management committee. He understands that the ever-changing role of being a volunteer can be a barrier to people getting involved.

“So as a volunteer at Cirencester, the role is continually growing, I think that’s always the challenge with volunteers. So, at the very start, I’ve been involved in coaching since my early twenties. I joined the club with my children. So my eldest son was in the under-nines there, and I thought, as a parent sitting on the sidelines, I may as well help and get involved. That became a very slippery slope.

 

I took on the under-13s age group. Here and there, I sit on the management committee, which brings its own load of unexpected admin meetings, discussions that I never envisaged when I first stuck my hand up to say I’d help with a bit of light coaching on a Friday evening. But it has also given me massive opportunities over the last few years.” 

Olly has had to learn how to manage his time as a volunteer, learn how to ask for help, and know when to find people with the skills to help in other areas.

“(Managing my time) It’s a lesson I’ve had to learn. I’ve very quickly learnt that you can’t do it all yourself. It is something I find very pleasurable, and it’s something I’m willing to give a lot of time to. But like a lot of volunteers, I have a full-time job. I have a family, a life outside of cricket.

We have really tried to instill a culture among our junior section that every parent is expected to do something. Whether that’s serving coffee in the kitchen, helping set up for a match, umpiring, or scoring, anything like that, and really sharing the load makes the life of volunteers that much easier. 

 

The way to manage time is to have that pool of volunteers so that we all do a little bit. We’re not all expected to drown under the weight of it because a lot of work goes into running a cricket club, and you can’t do it on your own.”

 

As a club, Cirencester has decided to invest in their youth section, and Olly believes initiatives like sponsoring older junior players to get into coaching has been really effective at building that community and keeping younger players at the club rather than getting Saturday jobs.

“I think (the youth) is the real heart of the club. So we have made a conscious decision that the investment that we put in goes into the juniors rather than going into paid senior players. So we’ve now grown the section to over 200 children.

 

We’ve set up pathways for older juniors to get into coaching, so the club sponsors them through their ECB qualifications. And then we pay our juniors to help out with that coaching, and that’s been really effective at building that community, but also keeping some of those 16, 17, 18-year-olds around the club… they can earn a decent wage while staying at the club, and that’s been a really big success.”

 

 If Olly’s story or any of our other volunteers has inspired you to get involved, then reach out to your local club to find out how you can help.

Despite playing cricket as a child at school, Derek Singleton had a lapse of more than 50 years without playing the sport before joining a local walking cricket group in Cheltenham. He believes that it is a great combination of sporting activity and socialising.

“I’m fortunate, at my age, still to be living with a partner and having company at home. Having moved not long ago from Kent and Surrey, I didn’t know any friends in the Gloucestershire area.

 

It was great to be a part of a group of people who had similar ideas, from diverse backgrounds, and enjoy their company and chat. That was part of it as well. I think it’s like that for many people, some of the guys and girls have been living on their own for a long time, and getting out to something like walking cricket means a lot to them.”

Derek also thinks that the fact that walking cricket can be played outside and indoors creates an opportunity for the social aspect to continue throughout the winter, a time when most cricket clubs are less active.

“I’m certain for people who are living on their own and don’t get out much. Maybe they don’t have other interests, particularly in winter months and walking cricket being indoors. I think that’s a huge benefit in winter months. I’ve spoken to one or two people in the group who said they dreaded the winter (before walking cricket).

 

No fun going out in bad weather, and if you did, you’d end up spending money at the cinema or the theatre, or you name it.”

If Derek has inspired you to volunteer or to create a walking cricket hub of your own, then get in touch.

Masoor Khan has only been with Downend Cricket Club for a couple of seasons, but the welcoming and inclusive community he found there immediately made it feel like home.

“What was quick to note was how close-knit the club is, and it’s more than just individuals. I know it’s an old cliche. It’s like a family and stuff, but it genuinely is like a lot of the guys have played cricket growing up together.

 

The support that we get is phenomenal, and I think everyone appreciates all the little things that go on there. By no means is it a massive club financially, but it means a lot to the community.”  

While there is no official title or volunteering role that Masoor holds, he has taken it upon himself to extend the welcome he experienced to new members. Masoor uses his experience as a Muslim to help build knowledge around inclusivity and diversity.

“I think for me, it’s just about making people feel welcome when they come to the club. I think building a bit of a knowledge base and understanding around inclusivity and diversity, and getting people to understand how different people fit within the club.

 

It’s not like I’ve started something brand new. It probably already existed, but I think it was more about appreciation, appreciating and celebrating the differences we have, and opening a channel.

 

I can only speak specifically about coming in as a Muslim and my faith, and implementing that and being an ambassador for that within the club. Opening a communication and a channel for that to take place and increase awareness and understanding.”  

Masoor believes that communication is the key and that asking questions is the best way to understand our differences.

“There was a lot going on when I joined Downend with Cricket Scotland and Yorkshire racism cases. I kind of challenged myself because cricket had that, and what can I do to change that personally?

 

I’m going to put myself out there a little bit. I’m happy to answer questions and not sit on the fence and let people make their own assumptions. So I made it very vocal that there’s no silly questions with me. I’d rather you ask me a question than make your own assumptions about it.

 

That was very quickly embraced, and it’s great to have. It was also important because, as it’s happened, we’ve also had a few more South Asians, Muslims, and Afghan refugees come in. Because we’ve raised that awareness from when I started, it’s made that transition a lot easier. I think it was about being brave, but also understanding the environment… It was about educating them and giving them the space to do that in a safe manner.”

Dylan is a coach at Gloucester Cricket Club and sees his role at the club as “opening doors” for children who would struggle to be involved in the game without the help of fundraising.

“The volunteer work that I do is often sort of fundraising for equipment and for fees to get kids who wouldn’t stand a chance of playing cricket, the chance to play. I’m proud to say I’ve done that with a lot of children.

 

It involves begging and borrowing from friends and family, and anyone who shows any weakness, really. It involves making friends with other coaches and other clubs and, you know, begging second-hand equipment off them.”

Dylan has been pivotal in creating pathways, not just for his club but also for other local teams by doing something as simple as opening up the nets to children. It has had a knock-on effect, not only for cricket but also with a reduction in littering and vandalism.

“We used to lock the nets at Gloucester, and they used to break in with bolt croppers to play. It was never an ongoing problem with vandalism. I was like, these kids just want to play cricket… All the health and safety rules that the club took on (meant it wasn’t possible)

 

I went to the elders of said group and said, If I can get it so they can play, we need an adult presence there, and can you make sure they’re following the rules and wearing protective equipment? They didn’t have the equipment, so I said I’ll get it.

 

All of a sudden, we went from a don’t go in our nets policy. To an open net policy where all we do is monitor that there are adults in there and that they’re wearing the correct equipment.

 

There’s been an influx of, you know, different ethnicities into Gloucester Cricket Club, and it’s a more vibrant and well-rounded reflection of the city of Gloucester now. And you know, it works. The elders monitor the younger’s behaviour. There’s no rubbish anymore, there’s no vandalism.”

 

Derek believes that volunteering is something that everyone should do because it creates a better community. Even if that is checking on your elderly neighbour’s door to help them with the weekly shop.

“Without volunteering, the world’s nothing. If everyone is doing something for money then where does that leaves us? There’s nothing more wholesome than doing something, seeing rewards, seeing people benefit and flourish and achieve, and knowing you’ve been a part of that. It’s a collective win, isn’t it? Every little win that every child I’ve ever helped achieves, I feel that a bit.

 

It’s a heart thing. It’s a soul thing. You’re doing it for better. More than money. I suggest everyone should volunteer… I think volunteering should be a part of society.”

If Dylan’s story has inspired you to volunteer, then speak to a member of your committee to see how you can get involved.

Like many of the volunteers we have spoken to, and I’m sure many who play cricket, the social side of the sport and the additional family that a local cricket club provides kept Lesley Slack coming back.

Now part of Quedgeley & Hardwicke CC and the head of women’s cricket at the club, she believes the community side of cricket is vital to keep women in the game.

“Especially when it comes to women and girls playing cricket, it’s very different. What people want out of their cricket, the women, especially the women I’ve engaged with recently, it’s a massive social aspect.

 

We struggle with our facilities because they’re hired, it’s a public field that we hire from the council, but it’s the people who make you keep coming back.

 

The camaraderie, you know, every time some scores a run we’re all jumping up and down. It’s not just their success, it’s everyone’s success.”

Lesley says that common goal and shared experience is the best part of being a volunteer and giving up your time.

“Its taking that group of people. So we started in February recruiting new softball players and then to take them from weekly indoor training, to outside in April, and to getting them on the pitch.

 

To see how far they’ve come in such a short period of time and to see how much fun they’re having. I think for me that is an incredible thing. We finished a match the other day having lost but there was some incredible play on the pitch. We all stood in a circle holding hands and going. Do you know what? We’re now cricketers and everybody was so so happy.

 

We have come so far in such a short time with our brand new team.”

Mike volunteers for his club, Winterbourne CC, as a groundskeeper to help what he calls his “summer family”. He has been involved with the club since the age of 11 and was part of their redeveloped youth system.

“We see everyone hibernate over the winter. You don’t really see many people, and then all of a sudden, the sun starts dragging people out. Everyone comes together again, and it’s nice bumping into people that you’ve grown up with for years.

 

I love it. Absolutely love it.”

He began helping prepare the wickets as a 14-year-old by pushing a lawn mower around, picking up litter, or “jumping” on the roller.

“It started when I was 14. I used to come up on a Saturday morning and help the old boys prepare Saturday’s tracks. Over the last five or six years, I’ve sort of been taking on more and more of it.

 

Lots of things I’ve picked up myself, and chewing off other people’s ears at other grounds. I just want to learn. I want our ground to be the best it possibly can. So you know, any little snippet of information, any little gem I can use”

Mike tries to share the knowledge he gains through the Winterbourne CC Groundstaff social media account on X.

“Perhaps it’s just me being proud, you know? I also use it to keep in contact with people I’ve never (in person) met sometimes.

 

People around the community are really friendly and are always willing to help as well. There’s been a number of times where I’ve gone for help and spoken to somebody online. And they’ve come back with some really, really useful information.” 

If Mike’s story has inspired you to get involved with the groundwork at your club, then speak to your ground staff to find out how you can help.