Cricket

The partnership will focus on promoting physical activity among cricket fans...

The ECB has announced record-breaking engagement generated by the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.

On the back of the victorious campaign on home soil, the ECB has released initial data from a project it is undertaking to examine the impact of hosting the tournament.

The ECB has released the details of a new action plan which it hopes will transform women’s and girls’ cricket in England and Wales.

The commitment, part of the ECB’s ‘Inspiring Generations’ strategy for 2020-2024, will see £20m worth of funding invested into women’s cricket over the next two years, while the governing body says it hopes to invest £50m over the five-year period.

The ECB has lent its support to Public Health England’s new mental health campaign Every Mind Matters.

The national cricket governing body will promote the campaign to its staff and supporters and on its social media channels alongside a film featuring various celebrities who have faced mental health issues. The ad will be shown on major UK broadcast networks, and will include former England cricketers Andrew Flintoff and Sarah Taylor, who retired from the England Women’s team in September and has become a recognisable voice on mental health in sport. 

New Balance will supply the kits for all eight The Hundred teams, furthering its already-existing relationship with the ECB.

All of the teams competing in the new competition, which is set to debut in the summer of 2020, will wear New Balance kits, while the ECB has also confirmed that both the men's and women's teams for each of the franchises will wear the same design and says that the soon-to-be-unveiled kits will reflect the identities of the new teams.

The ECB has announced New Era as Official Headwear Supplier to The Hundred, its new 100-ball competition.

The pair have entered into a three-year partnership which will see New Era create a bespoke collection of headwear for all eight city-based teams competing in the new competition, set to launch in July 2020.

A variety of different hat styles will be created and branded up in team colours, while the whole collection will be available for purchase by fans and the general public in May 2020.

The ECB has announced that attendances at cricket games this summer have surpassed 3m for the first time ever.

The total gate figures for professional cricket in England and Wales - including domestic events such as the Vitality Blast and international tournaments such as the ICC Cricket World Cup and the Specsavers Ashes Series - topped 3.15m, a record-breaking figure for the ECB and an 18% increase on the previous record, which was set in 2017.

With the innovative but disruptive Hundred just around the corner, the impending return of live cricket on free-to-air TV and both the ICC Cricket World Cup Final (which drew a combined peak audience of 8.3m on both Sky Sports and Channel 4 this year, hitting its zenith during the famous Super Over) and a dramatic Ashes series dominating the summer, interest in English cricket is at an all time high. 

But as the incredible summer comes to an end and the dust begins to settle, new entities are emerging aiming to grab a piece of the English cricket pie.

Speaking at the penultimate Sport Industry Breakfast Club of the year, Sanjay Patel spoke candidly about the future of cricket...

A golden summer for English cricket continued with the third test of the Specsavers Ashes series, as England beat Australia to tie the series, and the drama saw official sponsor Specsavers seize an unlikely moment in the spotlight.

Alongside centurion Ben Stokes - who was himself one of the heroes when England defeated New Zealand at Lord’s to win the ICC Cricket World Cup in July - was Jack Leach, the last man in England’s batting order who became an unlikely hero.