How to start a cricket club in England and Wales

1. Affiliate through the county board

The ECB works through 39 county cricket boards, increasingly branded as Cricket Foundations; Cricket Wales is one of them. Affiliation is via the board and costs roughly £20 to £100 depending on what you run: one county charges £100 for clubs with juniors, women or accreditation, £50 for open-age only, and £20 for midweek and friendly clubs. It includes the free Play-Cricket site, ECB public-liability insurance and access to the County Grants Fund.

The affiliation year is 1 October to 30 September, renewed by early March, with safeguarding compliance due by 30 April. The ECB’s eight Conditions of Affiliation require adopting the anti-discrimination code and Safe Hands, and registering on the Safe Hands Management System.

2. The ground

This is the hard part and the reason most new clubs start as a Sunday or midweek side sharing an existing ground. In a 2025 survey of 124 clubs, 32% owned their ground, 42% leased and 22% rented. A square needs preparing through the season by someone who knows how; a groundsman, paid or volunteer, is a named role at almost every club. Council and school grounds with a prepared square are the usual first home. Budget for covers, a roller, boundary markers and nets.

Funding: the ECB County Grants Fund 2026 offers £1,000 to £15,000 (£50,000 for changing rooms) with priority to women’s, girls’ and disability cricket, and there is a Grass Pitch Improvement Fund.

3. Play-Cricket

Every affiliated club gets a free Play-Cricket site, and Play-Cricket is mandatory for most leagues. The home side enters the result and full scorecard within 24 hours in ECB competitions; a typical league wants the result by 10am Sunday, the scorecard by Tuesday evening and away confirmation by Wednesday, with £10 fines, and players registered before the scorecard closes. Duckworth-Lewis-Stern applies in ECB competitions.

Your public website can sit alongside it: Play-Cricket for the official record, your own site for the club. Most clubs link the two.

4. Safe Hands

The framework is Safe Hands. The role is the Club Safeguarding Officer, mandatory, with an online course plus a workshop, refreshed every three years, and a DBS check. Twenty-four roles are DBS-vetted, including captains, vice-captains, scorers and umpires, which is more than in any other sport. Two safety rules any junior section must build into selection: helmets are mandatory under 18 against a hard ball, and fast-bowling limits apply by age on match day (up to age 11, four overs a spell and eight a day; 16–17, six and fifteen). Template: safeguarding policy template.

5. Saturday, Sunday and midweek are different sports

Saturday league cricket is the serious format: 40 to 60 overs with bonus points, and a club’s 2nd to 7th XIs sit in the same league’s lower divisions. Sunday is friendlies, often timed or declaration cricket where a draw is possible. Evening and midweek is twenty overs or shorter. A new club usually starts with a Sunday XI and a midweek side, then applies to a county feeder league for a Saturday 1st XI once it has a ground and a season of fulfilled fixtures. League entries are agreed over the winter for a late-April start.

6. All Stars, Dynamos and age groups

All Stars (ages 5–8) and Dynamos (8–11) are ECB-branded programmes hosted by clubs, about £50 a child, running May to July. 106,000 children took part last year, 32,000 of them girls. Hosting one is the fastest way to build a junior section. Above that, age groups follow the school year: U9 (six-a-side, soft ball, 15 yards), U11 (eight-a-side, 17 yards), U13, U15, U17 (full 22 yards). Open-age minimum is U13 with written parental consent. Girls often play merged bands with softball and hardball split.

7. Money

Clubs rely on subs (95%), sponsorship (72%) and events (69%); 57% have no paid staff. Match fees on top of subs are standard. Real examples: £80 adult plus £10 a match; £140 senior; £264 all-in or £100 plus £12 a match; £15 social including a 100 Club share. A 100 Club or 200 Club lottery is near-universal.

8. The year

October affiliation year starts; indoor county competitions through winter. Early March renewal. April safeguarding compliance by the 30th; the ECB Get Set Weekend pre-season. Late April to September leagues. May–July All Stars and Dynamos. 31 July typical transfer deadline. August–September T20 and national finals. September–November presentation night and AGM.

9. Your first season, in order

1. Constitution (ECB model), committee, bank account, Club Safeguarding Officer on the course.
2. Ground agreed for the season; groundsman found.
3. County board affiliation before March; Play-Cricket site claimed; Safe Hands Management System registration.
4. DBS checks for coaches, captains, scorers and umpires.
5. Sunday and midweek fixtures arranged by hand for year one; league application for year two.
6. An All Stars or Dynamos centre registered for May.
7. Website up with the safeguarding officer, training nets, subs and match fees, and the Play-Cricket link.
8. First match in late April; result on Play-Cricket by Sunday morning.