As we come to the end of a somewhat unusual year that has tested and challenged everyone, it is time to reflect on how the year of 2020 has gone and what exciting things we can look forward to in 2021.
At the beginning of this year we had the aim to build an online platform and test this over the summer with a select few people. Beyond this, we were looking forward to welcoming players back to our Easter and Summer holiday camps together with working closely with our partner clubs and their weekly sessions.
Despite being able to build our first iteration of our online platform throughout the year, we were not able to test it and therefore this will roll forward into next summer. We were disappointed to have to cancel our Easter camps but it was out of our hands and as always safety is our main priority. However, we did not want to let those who had signed up to our camp down and therefore we launched our very own ‘At Home Cricket’ campaign. This consisted of 30 videos of cricket challenges and coaching tips over an 8 week period for all to get involved in, whether you were 6 years old or 65 there was something for you. We even gave out a prize of a pair of 20/20 tickets to Lord’s when sports events make their return, which was won by Jacob Wilson, who has been a regular at our camps over the last few years!
As the UK battled the pandemic during the summer, we could slowly see the cases going down and some sort of normality returning. Come the end of May we were able to run some private coaching sessions of course with strict guidance but this gave us some hope that things were looking up. As the months went on, club cricket returned and matches were suddenly back on. It was welcome news and this allowed us to plan and organise three camps in August. They were all run slightly later than usual but it was a joy to see so many attend, with some even taking up cricket for the first time!
During the pandemic and despite the lack of cricket for the first part of the season, we were delighted to welcome Rickmansworth CC to the Cricket Vision family, where we provided coaches for their weekly Friday evening sessions that started back up again in July. We are excited to work closely with Rickmansworth CC next year and launch our first cricket camp at the club in the Easter holidays.
Come mid September, the cricket season came to a close and here at Cricket Vision we were wrapping up and turning our focus to recruitment, which we have continued with the last few months. We are still actively recruiting qualified coaches in the Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Hertfordshire areas so if you are a coach or know one then please do get in touch.
2021 looks like it will be an exciting year with our new booking platform being launched and putting on more holiday camps than we have ever done before. We look forward to taking a step closer to our goal of making cricket coaching more accessible through technology and bringing you along the journey with us. On behalf of everyone here at Cricket Vision we would like to thank each and every one of you for supporting us through this turbulent year and we look forward to seeing you all again next year.
Our highlight of the year I think has to be our ‘At Home Cricket’ campaign which I hope helped cricket loving families get through the lockdown earlier this year. To relive some of those videos check out the highlights video below or head to our YouTube page here where all the videos are still available free of charge.