The Club Cricket Conference Yearbook 2020

- 12 - Club Cricket Conference President 2020 Roger Dakin First let me say what an honour it is to be invited to be and elected as President of the Club Cricket Conference. It is a wonderful organisation that has been a force within Club Cricket for over 100 years. As I write this we are in lockdown and so no cricket is on the immediate horizon. We all want to get back watching and playing our great sport as soon as possible but the wellbeing of the people of this country is at the foremost of our minds and especially the fantastic selfless work that is being done by the NHS and carers across the UK: we at the CCC salute you all. Over the last 20 or so years that I have been involved with the CCC there have been huge changes at all levels of cricket. This is particularly applicable to club cricket: I have been a member of my club at East Grinstead for 61 years, having served on the committee in many capacities for over 35 years. Now I am Vice-President – which means you get a letter twice a year asking for money! I am also delighted to be President of the Seevant Over 60/70 cricket in England and also a Vice President of Brentham Cricket Club in Ealing. I have seen at first hand the many things that have changed: Sunday and mid- week friendlies have virtually disappeared as have the pre-season and post-season; we used to play until the end of September, often in lovely sunny weather. The drink driving laws put an end to the after match bar sessions – with a jug for getting a fifty or five wickets: I didn’t have to buy too many of those – getting out on 48 and receiving the cry of ‘jug avoidance’! Then the advent of the leagues now means that many players have to leave home at 9.00am and not get back until 12 hours later. Not all the youngsters these days want to spend their Saturdays doing that: we need to address that, especially in the teams below 1st XI level, to ensure we do not lose them from our game. One of the biggest and best additions to club cricket is the huge amount of interest in women’s and youth cricket. Most clubs now have women in their well- coached junior sections and the numbers in those sections are increasing all the time. The CCC have been right at the front of this with the formation of the CCC Women’s matches and the Annual Spin Awards for youngsters going to India for specialist coaching. The ‘Red Tape’ that is handed to clubs has made life very difficult for the club administrators, particularly at junior level I for one hope that some of the most stringent rules can be relaxed to ease the life of some of these amazing and dedicated volunteers.