UCA has collected more than 450 items of cricket equipment to be reused by local schools, disadvantaged individuals and families.
The Cricket Reuse Project takes unwanted cricket equipment and redistributes it and there were three pilots with Frensham, Rowledge and Spencer Cricket Clubs.
Frensham and Rowledge collected around 190 donated items of cricket gear and half of it has already been redistributed and means about 75 kg of equipment has been diverted from landfill.
Adam Hill is Head of Physical Education and Health & Social Care at Ash Manor School. He was able to pick up a mixture of pads, gloves, bats, and shoes for use in school cricket games and by students who don’t have their own kit.
Adam said: “We want to give students equal opportunity to play the great game of cricket in what can be an expensive sport. Sport is so important for young peoples’ development, taking them away from technology in the world today.”
Another beneficiary of the scheme is 34-year-old Afghan refugee Gualaqa Nawid from Bordon, who relocated with his family to the UK in 2023.
He now plays for Headley, Whitehill & Bordon Cricket Club and because he left his equipment back in Afghanistan, the donations meant he could play with his own equipment again.
He said: “The cricket gear donations have helped me a lot, enabling me to play matches and train with my own equipment rather than borrowing it from others.
“I would like to thank those individuals who donated their cricket gear and would suggest that others, if able to do so, do the same.”
The project is led by the director of the UCA Centre for Sustainable Design Professor Martin Charter and supported by the Surrey Cricket Foundation.
To find out more, visit www.cfsd.org.uk/projects/cgr