Kent’s Young Leaders in Cricket met Sir John Major at Lord’s in recognition for their volunteering.

Jack Doyle completed the programme in 2014 joining with Old Elthamians CC and is part of a 70 strong band of boys and girls from the club that have completed the programme since 2010.

The leaders have collectively amassed an amazing 1,900 hours of volunteering and over £1,000 in fund raising between them.

Old Elthamians CC can boast a number of inspiring stories through the achievements of their leaders and can rightly claim to be the pioneers for the programme that we now see evolve today with Jack being a shining example of this.

Jack has a strong traditional cricketing family with his brothers both playing and volunteering in a number of roles throughout the years at various cricket clubs.

During the 2014 season Jack exceeded the volunteering target of 20 hours with considerable ease by posting an amazing 116 hours of his own. This was enough for him to be recognised for his efforts at the Lord’s presentation of that year by Jane Hannah, National volunteer and participation manager for the ECB.

Since participating in the programme, Jack has taken a more active role within the club which led to a Jack Petchey Achievement award in 2015 and he was recently appointed Junior Club Captain for the junior section.

Apart from overseeing the development of the junior teams, Jack has played an active role in administering the Jack Petchey Achievement awards for other young players stressing the importance and ethos of the awards to his peers and younger members “leaders nominated by their peers”.

He can always be seen down at the ground having played for every team, both junior and senior, encouraging the younger generation and also the older generation with his numerous positive posts on the club’s Facebook site inviting them to get off the sofa and turn up for nets!

When the ECB invited some of the young leaders to Lord’s during the Test match versus Pakistan, Jack was an obvious candidate to showcase the programme and his club.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Young Leaders for Cricket is a fantastic initiative set to grow from strength to strength, throughout the country and across other sports.”

Former Prime Minister Sir John Major, who presented the award, said: “I warmly congratulate all the young leaders who have taken part in this impressive programme.”

ECB Chief Executive Tom Harrison added: “Young Leaders for Cricket is a shining example of the power of cricket to make a positive difference in our communities. What Paul Daniels and his team of volunteers has achieved is extraordinary and we will continue to work with him to support and develop this inspirational programme.”