Recently ECB has launched the #raisethebat campaign, which highlights key workers from the cricket fraternity who are helping to support the cricket community during COVID-19. The key workers who have been nominated by their cricket clubs will be featured on over 300 billboards across England & Wales. Meanwhile, the whole cricket family has been asked to spot a light on many more key workers who deserve recognition using #raisethebat on social media.
Nominated key workers include Holly Buxton, Club Secretary at Calder Grove Cricket Club in Yorkshire who has formed a COVID-19 Workforce to support the vulnerable in her community, Dr. Nasir Ali, who is an Emergency Medicine Consultant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Event Doctor at Edgbaston Stadium and Wendy Morris, who is an NHS nurse and player and volunteer at Ropley Cricket Club in Hampshire. Players from the England women’s, men’s & disability teams join in thanking the heroes of our cricket community who have supported others during this difficult time.
The billboards, which were planned to support a summer of cricket, have been used to feature some of our England cricketers, including Heather Knight, Joe Root, Anya Shrubsole, Moeen Ali and Matt Askin, to thank key workers who have been nominated by clubs across the country. The players have also led tributes with personalized video messages to nominated key workers that are local to them.
Russell James, Sales & Marketing Director at the ECB who is leading the campaign also said, “We have been truly humbled by reading the nominations which have drawn attention to the heroic work of nurses, teachers, care workers, and supermarket staff who have responded to this crisis without hesitation. “People are doing incredible things across the country and if we can shine a light on even a few of them with this out of the home campaign, then we’re delighted to play our part.”
The ECB is asking people to use social media and the hashtag #raisethebat to share the stories of other key workers who are within the cricket family who deserve recognition & tribute. #raisethebat is part of the Together Through this Test initiative which was launched to support & celebrate the cricket family during the COVID-19
