COVERED 2024 Spring

COVERED 28 TRENTBRIDGE.CO.UK N oisy, echoey school halls, deafening appeals for run-outs, and – above all – smiling faces. All reasons why Patrick Gada is relishing his role as ACE Officer at Nottingham- shire County Cricket Club, but that merely scratch the surface of what he is and will be achieving. Nottinghamshire has been part of the African Caribbean Engagement Programme since January 2023, and Patrick reveals that nearly 2,000 young people (just under half of whom come from African-Caribbean backgrounds) were engaged in the Programme in its first nine months. The decline in black British professional cricketers sparked the groundwork which led to ACE’s formation in 2020, reaching Nottingham two years later with thanks to investment from various bodies – including the England &Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Sport England – to insert this alarming trend into the national cricket conversation. The end goal is simple, but its desired long-term impact on the national game would be seismic. “The aim of the programme is to identify young black talent and to help them get into elite pathways across the country,” Patrick says as we journey our way through the stagnating Nottingham city centre traffic to deliver an after-school session inWollaton. “Hopefully that results in some getting professional contracts when they turn 18, and that has already started to happen in other areas where the pro- gramme has been going on for longer.” The task could be interpreted as fairly straightforward in its objectives, but it is one of which we may not see the results for a considerable amount of time. After all, this is about the journey of a cricketer from primary school fields to First-Class turfs. Hardly something which could happen overnight. “The reality is we are only at the very beginning of this project,” he cautions. “In Nottingham we have only had 12 months, but we will require years to see the programme’s potential come to the surface. It’s about little steps, introducing more children and young people to cricket and encouraging more of the keen and talented players to commit to the game outside of school.” “THE AIM OF THE PROGRAMME IS TO IDENTIFY YOUNG BLACK TALENT AND TO HELP THEM GET INTO ELITE PATHWAYS ACROSS THE COUNTRY.” Patrick Gada