Cornwall Cricket Hardship Fund

What is a Hardship Fund?

The Hardship Fund is to help young cricketers and their families who face unforeseen financial issues during their time as a young cricketer within the Cornwall Cricket Age Group pathway. The Hardship Fund is to support players and families financially who may otherwise be forced to pull out of the game altogether. 

Who can apply

Families who find themselves in financial hardship will be able apply to the Cornwall Cricket Board Hardship Fund as listed below:

The fund is open to cricketers who;

  1. They have been identified as a County Age Group player from the U11 up to 18 years of age on either the boys or girls’ pathway.
  2. The family can evidence financial hardship by means of being on free School meals or receipt of Pupil Premium funding from the school.
  3. Siblings will be assessed on a case by case basis and each family member will need to evidence point ‘B’.

What can be applied for

  1. Winter coaching programmes
  2. Summer Match Programme Fees (summer match fees only)
  3. Kings Festivals player costs (two thirds of the cost)
  4. A 10% proportion towards an overseas tour (Note, if family members also tour then No Hardship funds will be awarded to the player.)

Note :- Where support is needs for equipment, please consider an application to the Cornwall Cricket Trust.

What can’t be applied for

  1. Travel costs (people should be encouraged to look at sharing transport)
  2. Equipment (players are encouraged to ask their clubs for support in second hand equipment)

When can people apply

Families of young County Age Group cricketers can apply at any time during the year assuming that there are funds available.

Cornwall Cricket reserves the right to close the funds at any stage during the year depending on the financial status of the fund.

How to apply

All applications must be made through the Cornwall Cricket Board website, Hardship Fund Page form. (Below)

You will be asked to input your personal information. You will also be asked to provide a personal statement explaining the rational why you need to be supported. You will also need to include the supporting information evidencing free school meals or Pupil Premium; without which, your application cannot be assessed. This evidence should be in the form of a letter from the school confirming your status. This form will automatically be delivered to the Performance Manager.

Who assesses an application

All applications are considered by members of the CCB Performance Sub Committee. Firstly, a Hardship Assessor (Performance Manager) will consider an application, before it is then reviewed and approved (or not) by a Hardship Approver (Chief Cricket Officer) and the CCB Director of Finance.

Appeals

Once an application has been assessed; families have the right to appeal a decision upon completion of the initial assessment. An appeal must be submitted within 30 days of the original application decision being made to the CCB Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Sub Committee.

Application decisions can only be appealed once.

Processing time

Cornwall Cricket would aim to process each application within 30 days.

How an award is paid

If an award is to be made, then there are three likely scenarios.

  1. If the award is linked to a winter coaching or summer match programme, then no money will be transferred, this is called value in kind (VIK). In this case the player will be offered a free place.
  2. Where an application seeks support for Kings festival, Cornwall Cricket Board will pay the balance to the supplier, but this financial support runs to two thirds of the annual cost of Kings Festival with the family required to support the final third.
  3. Where the applicant is asking for financial assistance with the funding of a tour, the Cornwall Cricket Hardship fund will support to the value of 10% of the total cost of the players package. This 10% represents a value that may be provided by parents to seed fund a place. This 10% will be paid by the Cornwall Cricket Board to the Tour Company when the balance is due.

At no stage will money be paid into the bank accounts of the Families who apply.

Communication with applicants

Parents named in the application will be the main point of contact. Communication will be done via email to personal email addresses.

Notes:

Even if families meet the criteria, unfortunately we cannot guarantee support. There is often high demand and funding is limited.

For Cornwall Cricket Tours, players and parents are required to fundraise like other families on the programmes which top up to generate the total cost of the players tour.