The Future of Cricket in Wellington

The Future of Cricket in Wellington

Last night at a presentation to clubs, schools, and other key stakeholders, Cricket Wellington unveiled ambitious plans for New Zealand’s summer game within the Wellington region.

Cricket Wellington board chair, Sally Morrison, outlines the vision behind these plans, “Cricket Wellington are inspired to create outstanding cricket experiences for the people of Wellington. We want to enhance the delivery of our sport and create a system that ensures people have an excellent experience across all touch points – whether as a player, fan, coach, umpire, scorer or administrator.”

Central to Cricket Wellington’s plans is a renewed focus on community cricket. Aligned to New Zealand Cricket’s One Cricket project, Cricket Wellington will direct its energy to improving its successful One Club Programme. This programme supports the employment of nine club-based Development Offices who will support the growth and development of Cricket.

Recently appointed CEO, Cam Mitchell, notes, “We need a strong and sustainable cricket environment at the community level. Because of that, we are focusing on enhancing our investment in the clubs which are the heart of our game. We believe our One Club Programme is the foundation which will allow us to engage through providing local playing opportunities at all levels in schools, clubs, and socially.”

Another critical aspect of Cricket Wellington’s exciting plans is a focus on the development of a high-performance talent pipeline that will aim to produce world class players and coaches.

“It is imperative that we have a clearly defined performance pathway for our most talented players and coaches. We want to create an environment that provides Wellingtonians with an opportunity to reach their potential. We need more Amelia Kerr’s and Tom Blundell’s. To achieve that, we are investing resources in player pathways and will employ a Pathway Manager and Pathway Coach & Coach Educator (one role) to lead this project” Mitchell said.

The new strategy follows a Board-commissioned independent review of Cricket Wellington. Led by former-CEO of the Hillary Commission (now Sport NZ), Peter Dale, the review assessed Cricket Wellington across a number of metrics and included a wide range of stakeholder focus groups over a four-month period.

The review has highlighted that there needs to be change in the way Cricket Wellington are working with stakeholders across Wellington. To address this, Cricket Wellington has refocused its strategy and is transitioning to a new operating model and culture for the organisation and cricket in our region.

ENDS

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