NEW Herefordshire Cricket Ltd operations director Steve Watkins says he is determined to make the sport accessible for people in the county.

Watkins, who also coaches at Wormelow, believes there are a lot of talented youngsters and he wants to ensure there is an infrastructure in place to help develop their game.

"I am passionate about cricket in Herefordshire and am really looking forward to helping the sport grow even more," said Watkins.

"The ECB have recently reorganised their operation and we will be getting more support and finances to help develop cricket in the county.

"The emphasis will be on children and clubs, and we expect to see new programmes and initiatives in order to get more young people involved in cricket.

"The ECB is also promising a significant increase in the new Participation and Growth structure, doubling its investment in Chance to Shine, launching Cricket Unleashed with a £1.5m Strategic Fund, ring fencing £2m of NatWest funding, and putting an additional £1m into its Kids Strategy.

"The aim of the ECB and Herefordshire Cricket Limited will be to support everyone to play the game, to offer the right opportunities for individuals to take part and also give people memorable experiences to help them enjoy the sport and stay involved with cricket."

Watkins, who has been a director on the Herefordshire Cricket Board for the past two years, was previously cricket development officer for Gwent and Mid Wales.

He will now oversee and manage the day-to-day operation at the Herefordshire Cricket Centre at Pentland Gardens.

"We are very pleased Steve - a very experienced professional cricket coach and manager - has agreed to join our team," said Herefordshire Cricket Ltd chairman Derek Ling.

"Having played cricket for the county he is well known in the local cricket community.

"Cricket in Herefordshire continues to grow and HCL are investing further in the future.

"A grant has been secured from the ECB to install a two-lane cricket net at our Cricket Centre and we will continue with our efforts to train more local coaches by subsidising the Coach Education programme for 2017.

"We also hope to jointly sponsor a new initiative with the Marches League to subsidise the Match Officials’ training programme.

"In addition, we have secured more money from The Cricket Foundation in order to run Chance To Shine cricket coaching in our local primary schools, and will concentrate our efforts on supporting our clubs and their local schools in order to support a clear pathway in cricket."