Third cricket dome opens as ECB commits to £45m investment

The country’s third indoor cricket dome has opened its doors, giving access to cricket and community activities all-year-round and creating opportunities for thousands more people to play the sport.

The facility at Sporting Khalsa FC in the West Midlands has been funded by the cricket’s national governing body, ECB, and follows two similar domes in Bradford and Darwen, Lancashire. Offering three lanes of cricket, the facility will be operated by Sporting Khalsa FC, a Sikh charitable organisation which is expanding its community offer into cricket.

The club was recently awarded the FA’s 3-Star accreditation for its community sport operations. It serves a large ethnically diverse population in an economically underprivileged area, providing opportunities for people from all backgrounds to play the sport. The opening of the facility also marks the official launch of the new £45m Building Belonging in Cricket Fund, which will use money from sales of The Hundred teams to invest between £50,000 and £1m into grassroots cricket projects across England and Wales. Projects which will receive monies from the fund will need to be focused on growing the game and benefit under-privileged communities, as part of the ECB’s plans to make cricket the most inclusive team sport.