The Kent Cricket COVID-19 Task Force is continuing to meet daily via online video conferencing and has reaffirmed the Club’s commitment to the Government’s current “Stay Home, Save Lives” policy.

Whilst the Club’s usual activities have been suspended and offices closed to the general public, Kent Cricket is committed to supporting the community and Government agencies whenever and wherever possible.

We are continuing to identify areas where our staff, venues and resources can make a positive difference to our wider community in these challenging times. To date, we have taken the following actions and work is on-going:

The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence in Canterbury is located immediately adjacent to Kent & Canterbury Hospital.

• Whilst all commercial meetings have been suspended, our conference and events partners, Sodexo, are continuing to support a limited number of NHS/East Kent Hospital meetings. All of these meetings take place with the approval of NHS officials and all have rigorous hygiene measures in place. 

Foodbanks:

• As part of their shutdown process, our conference and events partners, Sodexo, delivered sandwiches, milk and vegetables to St Mary’s Soup Kitchen in Dover. Head Chef, Nigel Bell, is donating two days a week of his time to help out with food preparation for them.

Local authority support:

• Kent Cricket have offered the use of The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence in Canterbury and The County Ground, Beckenham for civic contingency planning.
• This offer has been made to the NHS, Canterbury City Council, Kent County Council and London Borough of Bromley.

Local business support:

• We have launched a dedicated commercial news page and directory of services on the Kent Cricket website, to help support and promote our Team Kent Business partners at this critical time.
• For information, please contact [email protected]

Community Cricket:

• Our Community cricket team are continuing to keep Clubs and Schools up to date via newsletters, social media content and direct emails.
• We will be connecting virtually with our community cricket clubs over the coming weeks to support them in planning for when the game resumes.

Staff welfare:

• All office-based staff, players and coaching staff are working and training at home. We are in close contact with Professional Cricketers Association, the England & Wales Cricket Board, our Club Chaplain and other agencies to ensure that our staff are appropriately protected, enabled to effectively collaborate and communicate with each other whilst working from home in preparation for the new season as and when this will commence.

Member engagement:

• We will aim to inspire and engage through our website and social media channels, including: home workouts led by playing staff, player takeovers, quizzes, features on the Club’s history and more.

St Lawrence Clinic:

• All face-to-face consultations and classes offered by staff at both Canterbury and Whitstable Medical Practice sites have been cancelled.
• Online consultations are still being offered and service users should contact the direct St Lawrence Clinic direct on 01227 473606.

Kent Cricket CEO, Simon Storey, said: “We are uniquely placed to take a leading role in ensuring that communities across Kent are ready to face the challenges ahead.

“With two well-equipped venues in Canterbury and Beckenham and with our network of 300 Clubs across both the County and Metropolitan Kent, we have a responsibility to serve our communities beyond the boundary.

“The COVID-19 virus throws up new challenges for both the Club and our County.

“The health of all our stakeholders remains of paramount importance and we will all need to be flexible, resilient, committed, innovative and courageous through the challenging period that lies ahead of us.

“Our commitment is that we will work tirelessly to ensure that Kent Cricket continues to inspire, engage and use the power of cricket to give communities across Kent a reason to smile, at a time when they need it more than ever.”