Threat to Newport CC Junior's Coaching Programme

Newport Cricket Club one of Wales  leading clubs and a flagship club for Cricket Wales, faces severe financial implications due to the COVID19  pandemic. Lost income has placed a huge question mark over the club's ability to run their 2020/21 Junior Winter Coaching Programme, raising the concern that many of the Club's youngsters won't return to the game. The Club delivers junior coaching opportunities, throughout the year catering for youngsters between the ages of 6 - 19 years old. 


COVID19 Lost Income
After a long hard winter, the start of the season in April, usually represents an opportunity for the infusion of much needed income to the club's coffers. However,the ECB's suspension of the Cricket season and subsequent closure of the club due to the CoronavirusCOVID19 crisis, has denied the club the opportunity to generate income to finance the running of the club's highly acclaimedJunior Cricket Programmes, placing a huge doubt about how the club will function once the crisis is over.

Lost Revenue
Junior Membership - Close to 200 Junior Members, 8 Boys & 3 Girls teams - Lost
Senior Membership - Membership from 4 Mens & 2 Womens teams - Lost
Match Hosting & Ground Hire - a hugely significant income for the club - Lost
Glamorgan CCC Matches - Income from Glamorgan's two lucrative Royal London Cup Fixtures against Yorkshire and Notts - Lost

With no cricket to offer members, Income has virtually dried up, but the bills keep rolling in, with ongoing expenses on Ground Rent, Insurance not to mention the upkeep of the ground.
With an estimated £40 000 loss of income in 2020, the future of the club and it's ability to provide community based cricket activities in the future is very uncertain.
One of Wales' largest cricket clubs is facing its biggest battle since losing its former Rodney Parade ground in 1990.
Newport Cricket Club is totally reliant on its Summer revenue as the ground is not used for any other sporting activity during the long winter months.. Effectively, the success of the Summer months gets the club through the winter, but the liklehood of no meaningful cricket this season means that there will be no tangible income for 18 months, prior to the start of the 2021 cricket season.

Dilema for the Junior Section
Due to the club's financial plight and with all monies available going towards ensuring the club's immediate future, it's the Junior Section which will suffer most with the Winter 2020 Coaching Programme under real threat.
A 20 week Junior Programme gives the young cricketers of Newport the opportunity to learn the game and to develop their cricket skills. However, with the hire of facilities, equipment and coaching fees, to run the Junior Programme costs in the region of £10 000 per year - money which is hard to find in the current environment.

All funding received from our GOFUNDME Page will go towards the Junior Coaching Programme to ensure that we have a fully functioning Junior Section, ready to emerge once the threat of the COVID19 pandemic has been extinguished!

Club Chairman, Mike Knight commented, 'The Club faces a very difficult time during this period of great uncertainty. It's a battle that we hope to win - but we are going to need support in order to do so.'

http://www.newportcricketclub.co.uk/