Notts Outlaws will give pride of place to the Trent Bridge Community Trust on their Yorkshire Bank 40 shirts this season as part of a wider commitment to raise the profile of the Club’s community schemes.
Formed in 2008, the Trust is the charitable arm of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and has gained plaudits for headline schemes including Positive Futures, which has been credited with a mass reduction in juvenile crime in Cotgrave.
Nottinghamshire have won the ECB award for best Community Scheme for three consecutive years and continue to deliver new schemes for the benefit of young people.
“Going forwards, we have three priorities in our team, our venue and our community trust."
“Going forwards, we have three priorities in our team, our venue and our community trust and the success of all three are intertwined,” said Nottinghamshire Chief Executive Lisa Pursehouse.
“We are very proud to have been recognised by the ECB for exceptional community delivery and our commitment to leading this field remains absolute.
“Foregoing the opportunity to promote a commercial partner on our shirts is a bold step but it fits perfectly with our long-term strategy to develop a community arm that has sufficient profile to attract support and donations.”
Tracey Francis, the Club’s Head of Community Sport, is finalising plans to lead an ambitious coalition between Trent Bridge, MCC, Durham County Cricket Club and Cricket Victoria.
Under the united banner of the ‘Ashes Legacy Partnership,’ the venues will deliver common schemes to engage volunteers, entertain spectators and educate young people.
“We’ve always worked hard to ensure that major matches have a positive benefit on our communities but this is the first time we have planned a programme on this scale,” said Tracey.
“Collaboration and sharing best practice across multiple venues seemed like a logical step for us and our challenge now is to transform plans into action. There’s lots to do before the tenth of July.”
The Club unveiled a second permanent replay screen at the start of the season, part-funded by Nottinghamshire County Council in recognition of the reputational, economic and community benefits of staging major matches at Trent Bridge.
“We made commitments in our bid document to build a second replay screen and to further enhance our community programmes so the support of Nottinghamshire County Council was vital in securing the matches and enabling us to increase the scope of our schemes,” said Tracey.
“There will always be competition between venues to host major matches but we want to promote idea-sharing and we’re really pleased to be working with other Ashes venues.
“The key message is that this is a unique opportunity for first class teams to work collaboratively because that is something that has never been done before.”
England all-rounder Graeme Swann has pledged to support the Trust through his programme of benefit events in recognition of the impact of the schemes he has witnessed at first hand.
“The Trent Bridge Community Sports Trust do some fantastic work and make a genuine difference through their schemes,” he said.
“I’m proud to have partnered with them during my benefit year and look forward to providing a donation to support their work.”