Photo Credit: ECB
The Club Cricket Charity has reduced the cost to clubs of their defibrillator package by £100.
The Club Cricket Charity, in partnership with the ECB, has made it more affordable for local cricket clubs to invest in a defibrillator and help save lives.
The charity has an ambition to ensure that every cricket club across England and Wales has access to a working and insured defibrillator, provided by The Community Heartbeat Trust.
More than 800 defibrillators have been provided to clubs by the charity over the past five years, with 90 (11%) of these having been used to potentially save the life of someone at a local cricket club.
The ECB is working with and funding the charity to help achieve its ambitions, highlighted by its ‘Score Runs, Save Lives’ campaign.
The campaign aims to raise awareness of the benefits for clubs – and their players, spectators and volunteers – to invest in a working and insured defibrillator, whilst also raising awareness amongst cricketers of the signs and risk of cardiac arrest and the steps players need to take if something were to happen on the field.
As part of that campaign, and in response to the cost-of-living crisis, the Club Cricket Charity has reduced the cost to clubs of their defibrillator package by £100.
The current offer, open to any cricket club, includes a portable defibrillator, insurance, training, connection to the local emergency service and post-traumatic stress counselling.
The cost to a club is now £251.20 for the first year, with an annual maintenance fee of approximately £150 for the following three years.
The partnership has already to help save lives and Trustee of the Club Cricket Charity, Robbie Book, said: “We know that cricket clubs want (and have a duty) to provide the safest environments for their players. Over the past five years we have – in partnership with the ECB – gone someway into ensuring that this aim can be realised – but there is more work to do.
“Score Runs, Save Lives has a simple message – if you play cricket, please ensure you have the necessary knowledge, training and facilities needed to save someone’s life.
“There is only a vital five-minute period before permanent or irreversible damage can occur. A portable defibrillator can be the saviour of an otherwise catastrophic situation.
“We recognise that the economic environment may have made it challenging for some clubs to take up our offer. As such we have reduced the cost by £100.
“This is now the most affordable opportunity for clubs within the UK to ensure they are best equipped to prevent someone dying from cardiac arrest if they were to collapse on the field.”
For more information on how your club can invest in The Cricket Club Charity’s defibrillator package please contact Donna Black: donna.black@club-cricket.co.uk
The Club Cricket Club Charity’s ‘Score Runs, Save Lives’ campaign page
