Building community relations through cricket

25 March 2024

A West Midlands Police Federation member has spoken about how the Force is using cricket to inspire young people and build community relations.

West Midlands Police has been working with Warwickshire Cricket Foundation and its Chance to Shine cricket sessions held at Edgbaston’s Indoor Cricket Centre.

Sergeant Chris Gallon said the sport was helping to break down barriers and build trust.

And he said a huge amount of credit for the scheme should go to Warwickshire Cricket Foundation community officer Mohammed Arif, who runs the Chance 2 Shine scheme.

He said: “We looked at how we can work together to try do something for young people during Ramadan.

“This is giving them an environment in which they’ve got something to do.

“They have somewhere their parents are happy that they are safe. It’s secure.

“They’re playing cricket and getting coaching.

“During Ramadan, we’re having Iftar – breaking fast together – and then we’re doing a couple of hours of night cricket.

“And we have some really positive chats around the actual cricket about being good people.

(left to right) PC Shah, participant, Warwickshire coach, Sergeant Wolkowicz,
Sergeant Chris Gallon, participant. <credit Warwickshire County Cricket
Club/Chance 2 Shine for the image>

“It’s quite a powerful tool, because when you’re on the same team playing together you’ve got a bond that you could spend weeks or months trying to build.”

The sessions follow a fun tapeball cricket competition earlier this year, which involved officers, paramedics, an Imam from a local mosque and several young people aged under-25 from across Birmingham.

Chris said: “We were there one night last week and they had around 20 Afghan refugees.

“PC Aqib Shah is a big cricket fan and he takes the lead.

“We did some coaching with them and we got to engage with a part of the community that have never met the police before.

“It was a case of breaking down barriers.

“The language was not always there but the one thing we had was the cricket, the sportsmanship and the camaraderie.

“We’d be giving high fives when they took a wicket or hit a good shot and it really built a strong relationship with young people who were there, to the point where we are continuing to evolve that to look at a summer league.

“It’s been fantastic.”

Mr Arif said: “Cricket can be an important influencer and enabler in societal change.

“It can play a unifying role across communities and bridge divides, that’s exactly what our relationship with West Midlands Police is all about.”

Now Chris and some of his team are looking at taking cricket coaching badges.

He said: “Myself and three officers are going to be working with Warwickshire to get our foundation in coaching, so that when they host the events we can go as coaches as well.

“Hopefully it’s another way of breaking down barriers.”