Middlesex Cricket has today announced a ground-breaking new initiative, to ensure that the next generation of cricket lovers have a voice in inclusion, diversity, and safeguarding issues at the Club.
The initiative, not seen before in the first-class game, will see a new Young Persons’ Diversity and Safeguarding Advisory Panel established, which will be made up of young persons between the ages of 13 and 18, comprising a diverse group of members of Middlesex’s County Age Group squads, players from the Sunrisers Academy, and young members from recreational clubs within the county of Middlesex.
The panel will meet regularly to work together on the issues that they are most passionate about and that most affect them, with the aim of giving them a safe space to collate views and recommendations to put forward to the Club.
The findings of the Young Person’s Advisory Panel will be fed into the Club’s ED&I and Safeguarding Committee, which will be presented to Middlesex’s Board of Directors at the Club’s Board meetings, crucially integrating these recommendations into the Club’s diversity and safeguarding procedures.
Once the Panel becomes more established, the plan is for the Club to invite two members of the group to its Board meetings, to sit as Young Diversity/Safeguarding Trustees Observers, when they’ll have the opportunity to hear their views being presented and discussed by the Club’s Board.
The longer-term plan is to ultimately provide an environment for young people to develop as individuals, grow as leaders, benefit from greater opportunities to share their views with the Club, and take advantage of mentorship from members of the Middlesex Board.
The establishing of the new Young Persons’ Advisory Panel is seen as an important step in the Club ensuring that the views of its younger stakeholders are heard, ultimately ensuring that Middlesex Cricket provides an environment that caters for the requirements of its younger followers.
Speaking of the creation of this new Panel, Middlesex’s Safeguarding Lead, Dal Babu, commented:
“This is a brilliant opportunity for Middlesex Cricket to ensure the young persons’ voice is heard at every level and work with our diverse and talented young cricketers.
“The young people will bring a fresh and challenging perspective on how we ensure Middlesex Cricket listen and respond to our youth voice, within our diverse communities and the elite cricket pathways schemes.
“We look forward to reporting back on what we have achieved in our first year.”
