Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2023

29 The four members of staff that made up the original YCB (it now has 32 staff) had a huge remit from coaching to tutoring to club liaison, county age group cricket and school visits. Nowadays, a temporary role would be expected to be made permanent relatively soon – but funds for County Board administration back then were meagre. Damningly, job security, as with the furlough scheme during the Covid pandemic which we’ll come to, wasn’t deemed important. The money came from the Cricket Foundation, not the ECB, at the time. An initial two-year temporary contract remained so for nine years. As is the case now, County Board staff often juggle various roles, particularly in a region as vast as Yorkshire with the volume and variety of cricket that happens. For Andrew, he also represented the YCB by joining South & West Yorkshire Sport (now the Yorkshire Sport Foundation), including a stint as Chairman. Then in 2006, the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) got a trust fund set up that allowed them to make all of the temporary staff at county boards permanent. It was a seismic move for Yorkshire who were allocated four Cricket Development Officers which meant more help in supporting and growing recreational cricket. Since, Andrew has done every job going at the YCB from coaching to child welfare to facilities. He believes the Yorkshire Cricket Board is in a strong position and empowering staff, as well as appreciating the Herculean efforts of volunteers, has been key. Andrew’s own start in cricket was very much tied to South Yorkshire works and club teams, as well as the inspiration county cricket gave. ‘I suppose it all started with my Dad taking me on Handsworth Rec just to play cricket. I was only five or six years old. I started playing when I was eight. It was a very basic church team – but he’d played for years and years with works teams.’ At 10, a young Watson was taken to see the cont’d on pg30