Khalsa Cricket Club Astro Pitch

Aim

Pitching for progress! Embracing astro-turf cricket strip for year-round play, fostering the love for cricket without maintenance hurdles.

Who are we?

Khalsa Cricket is a junior cricket club, that plays in the Saturday Warwickshire League and the Sunday Arden League on Sundays. 

We also offer midweek cricket as well programmes for young children, ages 5-16yrs. Over the years, we have offered cricket to individuals of all backgrounds, including refugees, notably from the Afghan Crisis, children in foster care and international workers that emigrate temporarily to the UK. This year, we have carried out the All Stars and Dynamos programmes and have more than 60 children attending, of mixed ability and varying backgrounds.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Although we play at Lighthorne village, many of our members come from the Leamington, Warwick, and Coventry area.

We are currently limited to 8 cricket strips, which after a few games per wicket, deteriorates and makes playing very challenging and dangerous. We are seeing a greater demand on the square which can only sustain a limited number of games. Our intention is to invest in an astro-turf cricket strip, which can be used to allow junior cricket along with friendly games to take place. The astro-turf will also provide much needed training facility, which can be used all year round well. As a predominantly Asian club, we couldn't play during the Covid-19 pandemic, as we were conscious of the virus threat within the Asian community. This has had a severe impact on our club resources financialy as the square and outfield still needed to be maintained, the machinery repaired with no membership or subscriptions coming in. 

Once cricket returned, we have had high demand on a limited square and strips requiring high maintenance.  We also anticipate further growth within the club as we have an additional 2000 homes and a new seondary school being built in close proximity to the ground. This facility will allow us to cater for the additional demand expected. 

How we’ll spend the money raised

The money raised will be spent in installing an all weather astro-turf strip which can be used for friendly and junior cricket, as well as for training purposes. The use is expected 7 days a week and will also allow us to host Dynamos and All Star programs at our ground.

The astro strip will be installed mid october, the work will comprise of the following.

•   30m X 2.5m strip will be excavated 
• The excavation will be covered Lay Terram Membrane
• The excavation will be consolidated with suitable graded hard porous aggregate using vibrating plate
• Roll the polyester base pad.
• Roll out the playing surface matt.

Costs would be excluding vat - 

• County Weave Cricket Carpet - £3250
• Shock Pad - £800
• Terram 1000 - £500
• Agrregate, excavation , hire of equipment , labour - £5500

Community impact

The community will widely benefit in having training facilities which are in short demand. To play and train, you need a safe environment which is available regularly with low maintenance. The astro-turf will allow that and can be available with very little upkeep. 

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

This project successfully funded on 10th October 2023