Summary:
A project on behalf of the England and Wales Cricket Board to investigate the issues and barriers faced by county cricket boards to enhance an initial national study and further develop the ECB’s commitment to Equality.
Approach:
The project methodology was divided into three phases; Design, Field Research and Report.
Design
The project commenced with an initial project meeting between Sport Structures and the project manager to finalise the details of the project.
One template was designed for a series of semi structured interviews with a sample of county cricket boards. In order to ensure appropriate data collection the interview template used predominantly open questions to obtain qualitative evidence. The template considered key areas including:
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the issues and barriers faced within the county
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what is being done to address these issues and barriers
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what progress has been made so far
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establishing what steps need to be taken going forward.
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Field Research
The field research phase was conducted within two stages:
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Field research with all identified counties
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Specific field research with one county
Primarily the data was in the form of qualitative questions with open responses which were analysed through an extensive coding process to identify themes, highlight key trends, relationships and statements. To complement the interview process a number of facilitated focus group sessions were run. The focus group sessions were tailored to each of the counties using the interview material to identify specific areas requiring further investigation.
The second stage of the field research was specific to one county - Yorkshire. Building on the initial interviews and focus group session a more detailed qualitative investigation of equity was developed. The purpose of this was to carry out a comprehensive county specific review investigating its set up, the issues and barriers faced at different levels within cricket and how these issues and barriers were approached.
Outcome:
The report phase concluded the research investigation and analysis. Information gained from the interviews and county specific audit was consolidated to form the final report with recommendations regarding the identified issues and barriers experienced within cricket.