INCREASING the quality of cricket coaching in the county is one of the goals of Herefordshire Cricket following a recent structure change.

With the appointment of four new members of part-time staff the county organisation are aiming to get more women and children involved in the sport alongside increasing the level of coaching.

A restructure of the the English Cricket Board (ECB) has seen the county now being part of a West Midlands group including Shropshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Shropshire.

Following the restructure Kirsty Sockett (Finance and Administration), Claire Langford (county welfare officer and administration of the county age group teams), Emily Arlott (delivering junior cricket sessions) and Richard Skyrme (Performance and Coaching Manager) have been newly appointed.

They have joined the operation in part-time roles and will support the work being done by Director of Operations, Steve Watkins, and the Herefordshire Cricket Board itself, led by Chairman Derek Ling.

"The new appointments will help improve governance," said Watkins.

"The ECB's big aim is around the new 100 ball format that is trying to attract a new audience and young people into cricket."

Herefordshire Cricket hope to introduce 250 children cricket after seeing 124 take part last year.

Emily Arlott is already ready for the Chance to Shine programme which will see cricket being coached in Primary Schools across the county with 29 schools receiving coaching throughout the summer.

National initiative All Star Cricket, aimed at children aged five to eight years old, will also be held at nine centres across Herefordshire.

The counties within the West Midlands group will also share resources and 40 school children will benefit from cheap tickets to watch England in a one-day international later this summer.

The partnership will also all create further opportunities for children in the future.

Herefordshire Cricket are preparing for a busy summer with age group cricket for their junior boys and girls teams along with their Kwik Cricket competition with 50 schools entered.

Richard Skyrme is part of a push by Herefordshire Cricket to get more coaches into the sport and to improve the quality of the coaches in the county.

"The biggest issue is that we haven't got a lot of high quality cricket as the Marches isn't a feeder for the Worcestershire League," added Watkins.

"We have a lot of local cricket going on but it's not the highest quality as we have got Brockhampton in the Birmingham League and six Worcestershire League clubs.

"Our good young players tend to go to Brockhampton and 40 per cent of our county players are from that one club which is quite a lot so we want to spread that wider and provide more players across the board."

Another initiative being ran by Herefordshire Cricket this summer will be Women's Soft Ball Cricket which is designed to be fun and social with teams of six versus six in a bid to increase women's participation across the county.

For more details see: www.herefordshirecricket.co.uk.