Leyton Urban Hub: a trailblazer for inclusion

Cricket is at a crossroads when it comes to inclusion, but the Leyton Urban Hub is a trailblazer in this field.

In 2019, Waltham Forest Council opened the Leyton Urban Hub in partnership with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Essex County Cricket Club (Essex) with a clear ambition of making cricket available to all, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic background.

The Leyton Urban Hub is multi-faceted and delivering numerous programmes, with the common denominator being that inclusion is at the heart of its offer. This includes sessions for underprivileged children, refugees, and female only.

This has become even more pertinent in the context of historic racism scandals among professional clubs. Essex were recently charged with allegations of racist language or conduct between 2001 and 2010.

Arfan Akram, East London Cricket Operations Manager, explains how Essex are working proactively to ensure a culture shift from top to bottom.

He said, “We started our journey of reflection in 2013, when we paused and spent six months engaging with a community we hadn’t spoken to before. In light of the historic racism scandals, everything that has happened at Essex since 2017 is designed to make sure we’re not just inclusive in a cheap way, but that this sits at the core of our business.”

More diversity is needed in the senior side, so aspiring cricketers of all backgrounds have role models. Currently, three of the five current professionals born in Waltham Forest are from an ethnic minority background (Feroze Khushi, Robin Das, and Jamal Richards).

However, Arfan explains that grassroots opportunities are a bigger priority than first-team representation at this point. Currently, over half of Essex’s junior sides are made up of east Londoners, with roughly half of those being from a diverse background.

Arfan said, “My driver is to flood the foundations and eliminate any forms of unconscious bias, challenges within the pathway due to finance, getting coaches from the community and make sure the opportunity and access is equal, fair, the rest sorts itself out. I say this openly, it’s not just about South Asian or Black communities, but it’s also for kids in deprivation. They are the most neglected and challenged community as cricket equipment and access to cricket isn’t cheap.”

Arfan added, “We’ve faced brutal challenges, but we’re on a journey where we’re leading on engaging and empowering the community. We’re not the finished article and that’s the exciting bit; we need to continually understand the need and requirement of the Waltham Forest community and make cricket accessible to all. With those headline objectives in mind, we’ll continue moving in the right direction.”

• Refugee programme: delivered by charity Capital Kids Cricket, participation rates reach 30 to 40 per session.
• East London performance programme: zero-cost sessions for underprivileged children who can’t afford equipment or high-quality coaching, with over 200 applicants.
• Female-only sessions: held on Tuesdays, the Hub is completely closed after 4pm to males. In 2022, only 2 per cent of girls in the Essex pathway were from east London, but that’s now up to 34 per cent.
• Walking cricket: Free walking cricket sessions on Tuesdays.
• State-of-the-art facilities: the demand was so high that the Hub was fully booked on all days and times from November to March.