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Breaking Boundaries with Slough Cricket Club Women and Girls Cricket Festival

Breaking Boundaries is a three-year programme (2018 –2021) funded by Spirit of 2012, supported by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and The Institute of Community Cohesion (Icoco).

We sat down with our partner from Slough Cricket Club Rabbia Akthar who organised a women and girl's mini cricket tournament!

1) What is your name and title?

Rabbia Akhtar

2) In which of our cities was the activity based?

Slough

3) Please describe your activity and what it involves?

Womens & Girls Cricket Festival post lockdown at Slough Cricket Club.

Lockdown this summer meant we weren't able to go all out and we wanted to put an event on for the girls. The youngsters were divided into four teams who then battled it out in a round-robin tournament.

Players had to follow Government guidance with hand sanitiser provided and social distancing observed.

We want the girls to be able to play in a safe and fun environment so they keep coming back for more. There's so many mental health and social issues going on around COVID-19 so it's so important to get them outside and playing cricket.

4) Please estimate how many participants/volunteers took part?

21 Girls split into 4 teams

5) How did the activity provide a) social mixing and b) socially connect people?

Social Mixing took place between South Asians, the Pakistani community & Indian Community as everyone took part in the tournament, finding commonality while working together as a team to play cricket.

6) Did you work with a partner organisation? If so, who did you work with and how?

Partnership work with Slough Cricket CC & Berkshire Cricket Foundation

7) Please provide a short description of any social cohesion benefits you observed during this activity and how:

Developing a sense of belonging - post lockdown we worked with residents in Slough to get together to run a women's and girls' festival. The event provided a sense of belonging amongst participants as the lockdown was a very difficult time for us all. We adhered to the Berkshire Cricket Foundation covid-19 guidelines whilst running this event.

Respecting different cultures and faiths - the festival brought two communities together from the Islamic Faith, Sikh Faith and Hindi Faith. It was an opportunity for the girls to get to know one another and respect different cultures.

This Festival was captured by two local newspapers and was retweeted by our MP and Cllr Matloob.

https://www.sloughexpress.co.uk/gallery/slough/161051/mini-tournament-held-at-slough-cricket-club-for-girls.html

https://www.sloughobserver.co.uk/news/18665153.socially-distanced---still-cricket/

Breaking Boundaries with Slough Cricket Club Women and Girls Cricket Festival

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