Andy Flower and Henry Olonga attend launch
On what was a beautiful early Summer's morning Wonersh and Shamley Green Young Cricketers launched their new junior section with a fantastic event at Shamley Green CC. Around 40 young boys and girls were joined by ex Zimbabwe International Cricketer Henry Olonga and ex England Head Coach Andy Flower to celebrate the launch of a unique partnership between the two clubs.
Shamley Green and Wonersh Cricket Clubs had identified that there was probably not a need for each club to run their own junior section being within 2 miles of each other so they have teamed up to run a joint section. Surrey Cricket Board awarded the clubs a grant towards the costs of setting up the section and over the winter the club has trained a Welfare Officer and 4 coaches as well as purchasing various equipment with a view to running cricket sessions throughout the summer for children aged 5-9.
Simon Hards, Cricket Development Operations Manager, who was at the launch to present the club with their funding said, 'I was involved in the initial discussions with the club about this project and the event today have exceeded everyone's expectations. The work the clubs have done is outstanding and to have 40 junior players signed up in April is a great start to what we hope is a long term programme.'
Paul Taylor, Director of Development added, 'Surrey Cricket Board's goal is to get more people playing more frequently in teams and we were really excited to provide some seed funding to a totally new junior section as we believe the support will lead to some great outcomes for both clubs. Based on what we saw today we are confident that the funding will lead to many more young people playing cricket in Surrey over the coming years.'