Former England captain Mike Gatting was one of those that turned out at Canterbury as part of the One Day One Game event on Saturday.

Bringing around 300 people from all parts of cricket within the county together, the event was designed to provide a stepping stone between the clubs, the Kent Cricket Board and Kent Cricket, whilst sharing ideas that could benefit cricket from grassroots level upwards.

Gatting was the most high profile name in attendance with Kent and England Women’s captain Charlotte Edwards snowed in at her home in Cambridgshire, with demonstrations from Kent’s Jimmy Adams, Simon Willis and Sam Billings amongst others.

Pulling that many people with a shared interest at the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury, various workshops were held from all aspects of the game with Martin Saggers providing a workshop on The Spirit of Cricket for umpires, with Heineken shwoing those in attendance how to pour a good beer!

The main attraction was undoubtedly former Ashes winning captain Mike Gatting and he told KSN how he was pleased to see so many people turn out despite snow on the ground and that he hopes to see more cohesion likes this in the future:

“It was a shame about the snow, but it’s been a great turnout.”

“Perhaps cricket has never done as well as it might. The Cricket Boards that run the recreational game and the First Class counties like Kent have probably never been as joined up as they might have been and with money being very tight a lot of the clubs are struggling with the economic situation.”

“A lot of the local cricketers also don’t want to play two days a week and then don’t want to play all day and want to play short games, so there is a changing face of cricket.”

“The clubs have got to change, the Cricket Boards have got to change and people have got to start working together to get some economic stability.”

“The club strategy has just been launched and gives clubs direction, advice and ideas. It doesn’t give them solutions unfortunately and you still rely on volunteers and getting them in is something clubs have to go through.”

One of the major successes cricket has had in the past decade has been the introduction of the Chance to Shine project and Gatting went on to explain how he feels it has been a huge benefit for the game:

“Chance to Shine is a great venture and started eight years go to get cricket back into state schools and it’s really worked a treat. It’s just about to get its’ 2 millionth child through the system, so there’s two million kids that perhaps eight years ago might not have been given an insight into what cricket is like.”

“It’s not just boys but girls too and about 48% of the kids in primary schools have been girls and they seemed to have enjoyed it enormously.”

“That’s given the girls and womens game a huge boost. Although there is a lot of economic strife, there’s a lot of people out there still wanting to play cricket.”

“Anywhere between the ages of four and nine, it’s about getting out there and having fun. As a coach you want them to be able to just let them hit the ball and run around.”

“I think sadly the government are only just starting to realise that getting sport into schools is what you need. The great old saying of all work and no play means you have problems and you get obesity.”

“Sport allows kids to get rid of that frustration, so I hope the government continue to put money into sport like they have just done putting £150 million into primary schools over the next two years.”

Meanwhile, Kent’s Chief Executive, Jamie Clifford, was thrilled to see so many people have made it to the event despite the weather:

“We had almost 300 registrations and I think we were only about twenty shy of that and given the weather it has been remarkable.”

“I think that speaks volumes for the passion people have for the game in our county and I think cricket is probably the county’s game. I can’t see one to rival it in terms of widespread coverage. There are lots of clubs in every corner of the county and this event has been a great celebration of that.”

With it being the first event of its’ kind held at Canterbury, Clifford believes it was a huge success and they’d look at doing it once again in the future:

“The One Game was launched so that everyone has a place within the game and Peter Robinson who is the Chairman of the Recreational Clubs Committee said why don’t we do a conference?”

“Based around the One Game he wanted everyone in the county involved in the game invited and to see what happened. I wasn’t utterly convinced as I couldn’t quite see how it work, but we structured a day with lots of different sessions and there literally is something for everyone.”

“You can bind a group of people together with a shared passion and the people will leave reinvigorated and enthused about the game.”

“One Game is also about welcoming diversity, welcoming people of all abilities and there’s a strong message about gender in there as well, but I think as a county we’ve got lots to celebrate about the health of the girls game.”

“We’ve got great role models in the Kent and England women’s sides and I think there is lots to celebrate about the diversity of cricket.”

Clifford was also keen to praise Gatting for all the fine work he does within the game and for taking the time to have come to Kent to attend the event:

“Mike has an important day job which is Managing Director of the recreational side of the game for the England and Wales Cricket Board, but of course he is high profile, an Ashes winning captain and he’s highly recognisable.”

“He’s also somebody that has a great passion for the game at every level.”

“The number of hours he puts in to enthusing people in the game is fantastic and he’s a great advert for the fact we all start somewhere and the local cricket club is a very important part of the cricket mix.”

You can find out more about One Day, One Game at www.kentcricketboard.co.uk