ICC Europe and Cricket Factory are pleased to announce their official partnership today as part of the overall commitment to help grow the great game across Europe.

Cricket Factory is an innovative range of equipment which facilitates the development of all the core skills of the sport.

The inclusive and accessible nature of its design allows for a wide range of abilities to participate in Cricket Factory related activities.

It has been utilised extensively by the ECB in England and Wales over several years both as an equipment range into clubs, Schools and Community groups, and also as the key feature of the ECB National road show to promote engagement in the sport for children, young people and adults.

Since February 2012, Cricket Factory has worked alongside ICC Europe and was present at the ICC European Conference in April, where European members had the chance to interact with the Cricket Factory team at Lord’s Cricket Ground and have a firsthand experience of the equipment and its wide ranging use.

Cricket Factory have worked previously with Cricket Scotland, Guernsey Cricket as well as this year supporting France Cricket with their Womens programme, whilst engaging with the KNCB, Cricket Ireland, Norway and Austria.

In Edinburgh in June, the ICC President Alan Issac was present and extremely impressed by a promotional activity day in Festival Square in the heart of the city, where jointly Cricket Scotland and Cricket Factory encouraged as many members of the public to get involved, the event was supported by Cricket Scotland players and staff.

ICC Europe recognise the huge potential of this partnership and how it can benefit members at the grassroots level to encourage wider and greater participation amongst young people and adults, whilst at the same time being used to support cricket skill development in coaching and training programmes.

ICC Regional Development Manager, Nick Pink is delighted with the agreement in place, “we are thrilled to be able to have a partnership with Cricket Factory, this fits in perfectly with our regional strategy to develop and grow the game across Europe, and the innovative nature of the equipment can be used by all our members to engage with all participants,” said Pink.

“Given the ICC Global strategy to grow the game we are extremely proud that ICC Europe have offered us the opportunity to partner with them to support their members to increase participation within their countries. The partnership will have an almost immediate impact, as we will be distributing Cricket Factory equipment to a number of member countries during the next few months” Peter Gray, Cricket Factory®