Five years, 40,000 kids and three pro cricketers – now Ace programme has bigger ambitions

Ebony Rainford-Brent is standing down as chair of the groundbreaking programme she began in 2020 to help reach a wider unmet need in cricketMaybe you missed Warwickshire’s one-day cup game against Sussex in the dog days of August. It was a group fixture between two mid-table teams in a competition no one pays a lot of attention to. But despite it all, the match marked a significant little milestone in the modern history of English cricket. Because Sussex gave a debut to a 21-year-old from Hemel Hempstead called Troy Henry, the very first male player to come up into professional cricket through the Ace programme. Henry had turned up for the very first trial Ace held, back when he was a teenage left-arm quick who dreamed of playing pro cricket and needed help to do it.Five years later, Sussex sent Henry in at No 9, he made 15 off eight balls, then came on fourth change and took one for 34 in four overs of left-arm-spin, because he had been persuaded by Ace’s coaches that if he wanted to get ahead he ought to switch disciplines. Four days later, another Ace graduate, 17-year-old Davina Perrin, smacked 101 off 43 balls for Northern Superchargers in the Hundred eliminator against London Spirit, in one of the stop-and-watch-this moments of the English summer. A month earlier, a third Ace graduate, Amy Wheeler, signed a new one-year contract with the Blaze. Continue reading...

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