West Yorkshire Cricket Club seeks ‘fairness, not favours’ over funding

A West Yorkshire cricket club feel their plans to create a multi-sport facility have been stuck in limbo for seven years because they cannot accept National Lottery funding.

Local funding body Sport England says on its website that it offers “very limited sport to fund smaller projects” with non-lottery money for those organizations that cannot accept lottery cash for religious reasons, because it derives from gambling.

However, this inability to support larger capital projects without using Lottery money is seen as a “disparity” by Abdul A Ravat, the player and development officer at Mount Cricket Club in Batley, one which he says has created “perpetual inequity” for clubs like his.

Mount developed a feasibility study with full backing and funding from the England and Wales and Yorkshire Cricket Board for a £2m redevelopment of their ‘Field of Dreams’ site in 2017, but Ravat says these plans are now “gathering dust”.

“For those clubs like ours, with a special principle and ethical position, the thought of collecting money from gambling is practically a red line,” Ravat told the PA news agency.

“The only possible place for us to get funding is through our governing bodies, which really rely on Lottery funding.

“(Accepting this funding) is not something we consider to be within the boundary line. This places us in a state of perpetual inequity and disparity.

“Clubs like ours that have done so much in the community. The cricket authorities want all the good things we do – and rightly so – and we are asking for help to improve our facilities, which I would say are third class.

“We do not offer changing rooms that separate girls from boys. The rugby club next door has no (changing) facilities, so the poor girls and boys change outside in their parents’ cars if they’re lucky.

“What we want is fairness, not favors.”

Mount has been active for many years in the local community and is committed to making cricket more inclusive, with initiatives in girls’ and women’s cricket, disability cricket and interfaith meetings, most famously with the Vatican St Peter’s team.

The Mount ran a ‘Healthy Holidays Summer Camp’, in partnership with Kirklees Youth Alliance (KYA) and supported by Kirklees Council in 2019, which provided sports and educational activities plus a hot meal for local children in the school holidays and ran programs similar since then.

Ravat is confident that the benefits of the project will enable the Mount to do even more, but says: “All those plans that were drawn up and assessed with the full cooperation of the local authority are gathering dust, unfortunately – nothing has happened.

“We keep knocking on the door. We keep going around the circle and no one listens to us. So what should we do?

“The inequity and disparity we face in terms of access to funds is not being reflected. We are not alone in this, we have had calls and conversations with (clubs in) other faith communities, who share the concerns we have.”

Gulfraz Riaz, chairman of the National Asian Cricket Council, an advisory body to the ECB, said: “This has been going on for several years. I would have thought someone somewhere might have come up with a solution of some kind.

“We fully understand (Abdul’s) position and we know of one or two examples in the country where he has affected other people with their program.

“If Sport England and the National Lottery are now fully aware, and Abdul has brought it to their attention, that some entities of the Muslim faith cannot (accept funding) on ​​religious grounds, then it is up to Sport England and the National Lottery to be able to respond to that in a certain capacity.”

Sport England said: “We invest in opportunities for people of all backgrounds to get active and enjoy sport.

“Sport England currently has a major fund – the Movement Fund – open to grassroots organisations.

“Accepting that not all organizations feel able to accept Lottery funding, applicants can make us aware of their requirements and we will do our best to meet this from the funds available in the budget.”