Cobham Avorians Cricket Club based in Surrey, England have donated a quantity of cricket gear and equipment to the Kent Cricket Club in Sierra Leone. The donation is a big boost for the newly promoted Premier league club who have been very successful both on and off the field.
The donation includes 10 bats, 12 pairs batting pads, 12 pairs batting gloves, 3 helmets, 4 pairs cricket playing shoes, 2 pairs wicket keeping gloves, 1 pair wicket keeping pad, 7 thigh pads, 12 wooden stumps, 4 pairs bails, plastic stumps and other basic training equipment for children such as Kwik cricket set and clothing.
Emmanuel Pessima, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kent Cricket Club (KCC), said "Thank you to Avorians Cricket Club for their significant donation to us which would go a long way in assisting our youngsters in the Premier league and also those children that we are working with in our community cricket program".
“It has been a struggle to conduct our training or even play our matches due to the lack of equipment. “Now that we have these equipments, we hope to make good use of them and promote the sport in Sierra Leone". "We are glad Avorians managed to identify our plight and assisted us.”- Emmanuel said.
Cobham Avorians Cricket Club run 3 Saturday XI’s all competing in the Surrey Championship, a Sunday League XI, competing in the Surrey Trust League and a Sunday Friendly Side. They also have a Junior Academy of about 80 kids from U-6 to U-15 age group. They were established in 1928 and moved to there current ground in 1947. Over the years, a number of very notable players have played for the Avorians. Amongst them are Bob Willis (Ex England Captain), Geoff Howarth (Ex New Zealand Captain) and many more.
Commenting on the donation, Peter Worth, Development Officer, Cobham Avorians Cricket Club, said:"If someone who hasn’t got access to proper kit can take up the game or continue in it by using some donated pads, gloves or a bat, then that is fantastic and if our donation can add more members to the cricket family in Sierra Leone then that’s all the benefit we expect".
"I hope that this isn’t a one off donation. I hope that we can find some way to support the Kent Cricket Club in the future. "How that develops we will have to see – but I don’t want to just let the relationship fizzle and die".
"Everybody who donated money for the shipping through my appeal deserves my generous thanks. It’s difficult to mention individuals, but special thanks to Mark Barrow (our Chairman) and Peter Hallam (our Treasurer), who dug out of their garages a lot of out sized equipment from their respective children, to Romida Sports Leatherhead, and their manager Steve, who helped to supplement the equipment with the excess money from the appeal and to Manor Shipping – who gave me a little discount"- Peter stressed.
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