The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) projects that £3.6m will be injected into cricket development over the next five years, thanks to partnership funding sourced from Sport England's Active Sports scheme and The Cricket Foundation.

Cricket Clubs, coaches and talented young players will all benefit. In particular the money will help fund the delivery of District Cricket, one of the seven steps in the ECB's new National Strategy, which will bridge the gap between junior club cricket and County representative cricket. It will result in:

1. Stronger clubs: High quality coaching will be made available to 75,000 boys and girls most of whom it is hoped will go on and join a local club. 1,250 clubs will be given focused support to help them better develop their juniors ('Focus Clubs').

2. Better players: A more extensive and ongoing talent assessment/identification process will be implemented across all 38 County Cricket Boards through the development of 150 Under-13 and 150 Under-15 District Squads. Thus, over 20,000 players will receive more advanced indoor and outdoor coaching and will play in Inter District Cricket Festivals.

3. Better coaches: additional support, development and training will be offered to 2,500 coaches.

Keith Pont, ECB Development Director, said: "District Cricket is a key step in our National Strategy, in helping us identify the best players at the earliest possible moment. With so many more children playing cricket in schools and in junior sections of clubs it has become increasingly more difficult to both spot and develop talented players.

"District Cricket gives junior club cricketers the opportunity to get noticed on a local level and then be coached and compete at a higher level. This will effectively provide them with a shop-window and give the very talented the chance to make the jump up to County representative cricket.

"The Active Sports programme will also allow us to improve the standards of cricket activity in the 'Focus Clubs' to ensure that all children locally have the chance to progress to their chosen level at their local club."

The Active Sports programme will be delivered over five years through 45 Sports Partnerships that bring together County Cricket Boards and their respective Local Authorities. The programme is currently being delivered in 12 Partnerships with full nationwide coverage in 12-18 months.

When it is fully operational cricket stands to receive over £600,000 p.a. from the Lottery Sports Fund (£3 million in total). In addition to over £125,000 p.a. from the Cricket Foundation in Partnership funding the total project is likely to be worth approximately £3.6 million. It therefore represents one of the most significant development programmes in grass roots cricket.

Significant success has already been achieved:

Derbyshire Cricket Board has founded an inner-city club with U11 and U13 teams, thus delivering cricket to youngsters for whom there was no previous opportunity to play.

Dorset Cricket Board has established 11 new U11 Junior Sections - many of which are in remote rural areas.

Somerset Cricket Board has been able to access an innovative transport scheme which enables children in outlying rural areas to be taken to and from coaching courses that previously they would not have been able to get to. This allows more children to become involved with cricket clubs.

By working in local partnerships Active Sports will ensure these opportunities are made available to children and coaches in inner city areas and specifically to girls, black/ethnic minority communities and people with disabilities.

In addition it is planned to establish a network of local Cricket Development Groups to ensure that local clubs, coaches and Local Authority Sports Development Officers become more involved in the planning of cricket development on a local basis.

Active Sports background

Active Sports is a £10m National Lottery Sports Fund programme operating over a five-year period which will be delivered through 45 Sports Partnerships. The 45 Sports Partnerships have been set up to bring together Governing Bodies of Sport (in cricket's case, County Cricket Boards) and Local Authorities to deliver an integrated sports development programme, on a local basis, for ten core sports, one of which is cricket.

The following 12 cricket partnerships have received their first year Active Sports grant:

Durham (£13,500), Teeside (£9,150), Cheshire (£14,750), Lancashire (£19,500), Merseyside (£18,000), Shropshire (£14,175), Derbyshire (£14,000), Hertfordshire (£13,000), Buckinghamshire (£12,250), Dorset (£13,100), Gloucestershire (£10,100), Somerset (£11,000).

The following eight Partnerships hope to receive a decision within the next three months:

Northumberland, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, Essex, London (Kent, Middlesex, Surrey & Sussex), Cornwall, Devon

© ECB