COMPETITIVE cricket in South Gloucestershire has increased in popularity despite national fears that the game is being sidelined by people who could take up the sport, says the man at the helm of the game in the region.

Gloucestershire Cricket Board chief executive Steve Silk says they have taken the bull by the horns in recent years and actively helped club and school cricket across the county to keep players on the square.

But Silk admits that there is still a huge amount to be done to maintain the momentum which has already seen them shake-up the club league structure for next season.

As local side like Thornbury, Chipping Sodbury and Almondsbury prepare to launch their new campaigns in the coming weeks, Silk spoke to the Gazette about the state of the game just a week after a national furore erupted on the publication of this year’s cricket ‘bible’ the Wisden Almanack.

Within Wisden, editor Lawrence Booth spoke of several things he believed needed addressing, from international level to the bottom rung of the game, and that included concern about participation levels at clubs and schools.

Silk acknowledged it was important to bring matters out into the open and said: “We are looking at different ways to get people playing the game.”

And the Wisden comments have highlighted worries on a national level that the GCB and their neighbouring counties have been trying to address already.

Only in February, agreement was reached between the cricket boards of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset, the West of England Premier League and four feeder leagues for the biggest shake-up of the league system in more than a decade.

This was in response to the England and Wales Cricket Board’s National Cricket Playing Survey last year. Silk said: “The NCPS responses from the West showed major dissatisfaction with travel time, the length of day and the competitiveness of the cricket on offer.

“These are things that many of us had been flagging up for several years but, for the first time, we had the data to back it up and drive change. The players have spoken and it has been fantastic to see clubs and leagues respond so quickly and decisively.”

Gloucestershire’s Chris Dent, who regularly returns to Thornbury Cricket Club, said a thriving club scene was crucial for the development of home-grown players that can move to professional county level, as he had done.

Dent said: “Luckily, at the time I joined Thornbury, they were a good side and I had some good players to chat to.

“It helped that I was playing a good standard of cricket there. That prepared me for second team cricket at Gloucestershire, which in turn helped me move up to the senior team.”

Silk said of the Wisden assessment: “It’s interesting,” adding: “What we are doing here is not bringing in new formats of cricket but it is about how to retain players. We are getting a significant amount of money (from the England and Wales Cricket Board) to keep people playing the game.

“Over the last five years that I have been involved with the GCB, we have collected all the information on the number of teams playing cricket – and that is not just about anybody playing cricket in the social game but rather a proper competitive team.

“We have had to look at what leagues are played across Gloucestershire as well as the structured competitions like cups and trophies and what we have found is a collective increase in structured cricket.”

And while the number of clubs may have dropped, the amount of teams in the county is remaining level.

“We are losing local cricket clubs and that sounds awful but we are keeping a constant number of teams playing. You can see this in villages. Those smaller clubs which are running only one team are struggling but what we are looking to try and do is to see if there is a way that we can bring two clubs together and form a strong union.

“There have been teams which have done that in the past and they are now far, far stronger than when they were single team clubs.”

Schools are another topic that the GCB have worked hard to develop but the local clubs in South Gloucestershire will find out next year, when the new league restructure comes into force, whether that helps in keeping interest levels in cricket high.

Silk and his team of 11 staff will try their best. He said: “We are about getting Gloucestershire clubs doing well in the senior league structure. Our aim is to develop a fun and enabling environment in which more people in Gloucestershire play and are involved in cricket."