The Cricket Foundation, which allocates approximately £3m annually to the 38 County Boards (plus the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands), is to actively seek additional income to supplement funding received from ECB.

The recent Charities Act now requires Charity Trusts to be more active in attracting investment from a wider variety of sources. The Cricket Foundation Trustees have therefore established a partnership with City Company, Abel Hadden & Co Ltd.

Terry Bates, ECB Special Projects Officer and Cricket Foundation Director, said: "Plans will be drawn up in the coming weeks to raise the profile of the Foundation and in so doing attract additional income so that we are no entirely reliant on ECB funding."

In the past five years the Cricket Foundation has invested £12.8m through their annual development funding awards for grass roots cricket. This has provided valuable funding support for County Development Officers, for coaching and match programmes for County Age Range squads, and for coaching in schools and clubs. It also supports women's cricket, cricket for the disabled, cricket for ethnic minorities and cricket in inner city areas, as well as supporting candidates on coach education, groundsmanship, umpiring / scoring and administration courses.

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