CECC and Far & Wide Zimbabwe Cricket Camp 2022

From Ritesh Patel - CECC Chairman. In December 2022, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to combine my passion in sports with a country I love and an opportunity to give back to underprivileged communities. The sport is cricket, the country is Zimbabwe, and the opportunity is to bring a disciplined game, good quality equipment, and trained coaches to the underprivileged children in Harare, the capital. We named our camp Far and Wide Cricket to reflect the goal of raising awareness and empowering children through the game of cricket. The broader aim of the programme is to provide a sense of ownership to learn and apply the rules and play the game. Like all sports, cricket played in a disciplined environment can be a tool to help fight broader social issues related to child welfare, including mental health issues and drug abuse. A major barrier for children to progress in the sport is the lack of access to cricket equipment, which can be expensive. Through donations from Crouch End Cricket Club members and friends, we collected used and new equipment that could be utilised at these cricket camps. Over 50 cricket shirts, bats, pads, stumps, batting gloves, wicket keeping gloves, cones and much much more was collected!