THE Bradford Mutual Sunday School League have been invited to share the history of their clubs with the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation.

The latter, who were represented at the league’s September meeting at the Karmand Centre by Chris Chatten, want to build up an archive of club information for their Yorkshire Cricket Heritage: A Lasting Legacy project, starting with the Leeds-Bradford area.

“There is just over £90,000 of external funding available from the Heritage fund,” explained Chris, “and there are four main project areas – participation, education, heritage and health and well-being.

“We are the official charity arm of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and have a vision to create Community Without Boundaries.

“Cricket is a fundamental part of local cultural tradition, yet often the heritage of grounds and the societies that shape them are neglected.

“We eventually intend to roll this project out to the whole of Yorkshire.”

Chatten added: “A cricket club is often the oldest organisation in the community and is a very powerful part of local history.”

Among the bodies that the Foundation are working with are education services, the Sporting Memories Foundation (who help people with dementia of which there were said to be 3,768 in Bradford in 2017), specialist education provision, website developers and upskilling and training agencies.

Chatten said: “We also want to work with the West Yorkshire Archive Service and the project will hopefully encourage more people to participate in cricket.”

The sport has seen a plunge in national participation from 420,000 in 2009 to 280,000 in 2017, while among 11-15 year olds activity has dropped from 17.3 per cent in 2010 to 12.6 per cent in 2018.

Chatten added: “We want the project to strengthen links between clubs and their local communities, re-establish the awareness in a historical context of a local club as living history, make people aware of cricket’s value and potential regarding social cohesion and for it to capitalise on us winning the World Cup.”

Further information is available from Chatten at chris.chatten@yorkshireccc.com

League secretary Hafiz Rahman congratulated Hallfield and Salem Athletic (Sir James Roberts Cup) and Bradford Phoenix and TABS (H Broadbent Trophy) for reaching their respective cup finals and for playing those matches in the best spirit.

He added: “The Sir James Roberts Cup finals was played in coloured clothing and we hope that that continues.”