The County Grants Fund aims to support ECB affiliated Cricket Clubs, which are actively engaged with women’s cricket, girls’ cricket and/or disability cricket, to create welcoming environments or to provide enhanced playing or changing facilities, in an effort to increase the number of women’s, girls’ and disability cricket teams, and to achieve the game’s vision to become the most inclusive team sport (Inspiring Generations 2025 – 2028). Eligible Clubs can apply for between £1k (minimum) and £15k (maximum) per application, or for larger scale Enhanced Changing Facilities (projects over £30,000), grants up to £50k will be available.
three funding categories for clubs
creating welcoming environments
Funding can cover improving social space (inside and outside), female/disabled toilet facilities including sanitary ware, catering equipment for kitchens and BBQs, arrival and access improvements including disabled access, signage and lighting, and digitising facilities to include WIFI hardware, TVs, EPOS equipment and electronic scoreboards.
enhanced playing facilities
• ECB Approved Non-Turf Match Pitch (min 30m)
• ECB Approved Non-Turf Practice Facility (min 26m)
Enhanced Changing Facilities
Funding can cover changing room refurbishment and or extensions, individual shower spaces with drying areas, improved toilet provision, grooming points and personal possession lockers.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
Clubs must deliver cricket for at least one of the following target groups:
- Women’s Cricket: a minimum of one women’s team playing a minimum of three competitive soft ball or hard ball fixtures in league, friendly, indoor or outdoor cricket in 2025/2026, as recorded on Play-Cricket.com.
- Girls’ Only Cricket: a minimum of one girls’ team playing a minimum of three competitive soft ball or hard ball fixtures in league, friendly, indoor or outdoor cricket in 2025/2026, as recorded on Play-Cricket.com.
- Girls’ Only Dynamos Cricket: Clubs delivering a Dynamos Cricket programme specifically for girls in 2025/2026, as registered on ClubSpark.
- Dynamos Cricket for Girls Activation Clubs: Dynamos Cricket for Girls delivered by Clubs which have been selected by their Recreational Cricket Board (RCB) or Cricket Foundation (CF) to deliver Dynamos Cricket for Girls in 2025/2026 that specifically leads to the creation of girls’ teams at the selected Clubs, as registered on ClubSpark.
- Disability Cricket: a registered Disability Champion Cricket Club or a registered host for the Disability Premier League in 2025/2026.
clubs that have benefited from county grants
WELLS CRICKET CLUB
Wells Cricket Club identified the need for a new outdoor net facility to help continue to grow their girl’s and women’s offering, and the work was completed in time for the start of the 2022 season.
CRANMORE CRICKET CLUB
The installation of an off-grid solar PV system included 10 Longi 405w solar panels, a 6kVa Victron inverter, and 10kWh of battery storage, providing the club with reliable energy storage. Previously reliant on a generator, the club is now able to run a fully functioning bar, generate revenue, and support new heating for showers.
NORTH CURRY CRICKET CLUB
Poor water pressure is every grounds person’s nightmare. We’ve supported clubs like North Curry CC by installing rainwater harvesting systems and boosting cold water pressure, ensuring smoother operations and greater efficiency on-site.
SHAPWICK & POLDEN CRICKET CLUB
Shapwick and Polden Cricket Club recently invested in a new pavilion and wanted to complete the new look with a patio. This was made possible with the funding available through the County Grant Fund for projects designed to create a welcoming environment for club members.
LONG SUTTON CRICKET CLUB
Long Sutton Cricket Club have replaced their 25 years old practice facility to provide the club with a safer practice area which can be used as additional capacity for their growing women and girl’s section who are looking to progress their hardball opportunities.
timsbury CRICKET CLUB
There was a complete refurbishments of the clubhouse to make it more modern and welcoming to families and the community
HOW TO APPLY FOR GRANT FUNDING
Before you begin, we recommend that you read the County Grant Guidance for 2026 (below) and read the Creating an Application (below) guidance document . If you do have a project you believe is eligible, please contact Ben Osborne before you visit the ECB IMS to register and apply.
All clubs who wish to apply must complete the ECB Expression of Interest Phase of the application. It is vitally important that when completing this, you have your project costs, partnership funding & any planning requirements in place. We recommend that expression of interests are completed and submitted at the latest 2 weeks before the full application deadline to ensure you have enough time to complete the second stage. Once this has been submitted on IMS club’s should also send a copy of their Club Development Plan to Ben Osborne.
Once your Club Development Plan has been received, our development team will be in contact with your club to discuss the next steps. We’ll need to understand:
- What your project is;
- Assess its eligibility;
- The impact to cricket in Somerset
- Readiness – cost, partnership funding, planning permission.
To register, please visit visit ECB IMS.
Once SCF Staff are happy your project is able to move forward with a full application then the club will complete the full application
WHEN CAN YOU APPLY?
All three application windows for 2026:
Please note:
There are a few key points we would like to make to clubs at this stage:
- Prioritising: Only applications from clubs that are actively engaged with ECB programmes: All Stars, Dynamos, Women’s and Girls’ Cricket and Disability Cricket or can demonstrate the impact the project will have on their local area will be considered.
- Local management: The County Grants Fund will be administered locally, with an Independent Review Panel for award decisions.
- Do not see as a replacement for Small Grant Scheme: The County Grants Fund is absolutely not a re-badge of the old Small Grants Scheme. The project themes are very different but also with potentially higher levels of investment.
- Scale of support: The County Grants Fund has been launched by the ECB as a priority for supporting the recreational game and the ambitions of its Inspiring Generations Strategy. Therefore, there are very positive levels of investment attributed to the fund. However, there are still finite levels of funding available to us which is why we will work closely with cricket clubs to identify appropriate projects which delivery strong outcomes. This may mean that applications are not funded to the maximum requested. A club must as a minimum be putting 10% of the project cost in themselves or it will be rejected by our award panel.
- Clubs who have previously had County Grant Investment: Clubs who have previously had County Grant Investment are able to re apply providing it is not within the same theme as in 2021/22/23/24 unless there is an exception case to do so.
Get in touch
If you’d like to speak to us about ECB County Grants, please contact us using the short online form below.
