• Ebony Rainford-Brent announces local youth initiative• ‘Participation in the black population has gone down’
Surrey have announced an initiative aimed at increasing cricket participation among the local black community, starting with a search for 12 talented youngsters to join a scholarship programme that will run alongside their academy.
The demographics of their home borough of Lambeth, where 24% of the overall population and 42% of 10- to 19-year-olds are black, are not reflected in their playing staff, a fact which has now prompted them to launch the African Caribbean Engagement Programme, which is being led by the former
England international Ebony Rainford-Brent, now Surrey’s director of women’s cricket.