LOCAL cricket clubs have been given details of how the new governing body in Lancashire will be structured.

The newly-formed Lancashire Cricket Foundation (LCF) has replaced the Lancashire Cricket Board (LCB) as being in charge of running local cricket.

The LCF is a merger of the former LCB and Lancashire County Cricket Club Foundation.

Rumours of the LCB's demise and of it being replaced by the LCF have been circulating for several weeks, although no official announcement was made during that time.

However, informed sources in local cricket have been passing on what proved to be accurate details of how the new structure would be formed and discussing them in private.

The new Lancashire structure sees four men in charge of four areas – the north, east, west and south. They have been given the roles of club and community cricket managers and will be tasked with developing cricket in schools and clubs in their areas.

The south area incorporates Bury among others and its club and community cricket manager is Bobby Denning who formerly occupied the highest position at the LCB, managing director.

The new leading man in Lancashire is Paul Allott, who has taken on the role of director of cricket at Lancashire Cricket Club.

Underneath him in running local cricket is Clinton Perren who is head of cricket relationships and will manage the four club and community cricket managers.

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The Bury Times has been shown a letter from Mr Allott which was sent to all clubs in Lancashire yesterday.

It reads:

"To the cricket clubs of Lancashire.

Welcome to the newly-formed Lancashire Cricket Foundation, following the merger of the Lancashire Cricket Board (LCB) and the Lancashire County Cricket Club Foundation (LCCC Foundation).

The board of directors of the new Lancashire Cricket Foundation (LCF) will meet later this month for the first time following the merger, and ahead of this meeting we all felt that it was important to update all clubs on the detail and our aims and ambitions.

Each and every employee from both Lancashire Cricket Club and the Lancashire Cricket Foundation will work towards one overall vision, under the ‘Lancashire Cricket’ banner, to ensure that cricket flourishes and grows in the North West.

This will be delivered by Lancashire Cricket adopting the ECB’s overall Cricket Unleashed plan, and form ‘Lancashire Cricket Unleashed’, with ‘more play’, ‘great teams’ and ‘inspired fans’ at its heart.

It is our belief that these changes will mean that through yourselves and ourselves, we will all be better placed than ever to develop and grow the game of cricket, and attract new and lapsed players and fans in the North West, which allows the game of cricket to flourish and be part of more people’s lives.

The Foundation will be responsible for the growth in participation numbers within the game in the region as well as increasing support for schools, clubs, leagues and the wider community. I am delighted to be appointed as the director of cricket, which was formally announced in September, and will oversee the Foundation and the future growth of the game, as well as providing key links to the professional game, and to enhance a closer two-way relationship between the clubs and county.

I will be joined and supported by a number of key individuals. Firstly, Clinton Perren has been appointed to the role of head of cricket relationships and will manage a team of club and community cricket managers (CCCMs) who will each be tasked with managing a regional group of schools and clubs and ensuring improved contact and support across the game. Clinton, who has played league cricket in both the Central Lancashire and Lancashire Leagues, as well as having represented Queensland and Australia A as a professional cricketer.

Secondly, Sandy Mitchell has been appointed as head of community growth, having previously headed up the LCCC Foundation, where he was responsible for the development of a large number of community projects, programmes and events introducing cricket to more than 10,000 young people each year across schools and community groups. His new role will focus on further developing the impact of this work longer term. Also, former Lancashire captain and England wicket keeper Warren Hegg has taken on the position of head of cricket business, which is a multi-faceted role that will operate across a number of areas of cricket including professional, commercial and recreational. The team of club and community cricket manager (CCCMs) will be Paul Bryson, James Cutt, Ian Seddon and Bobby Denning, and each will be responsible for a geographical region and to be the first point of contact for clubs in that region. They will be in contact with those clubs in the very near future to arrange to meet you. Congratulations to all of these individuals, and they will be supported by a wider experienced, dedicated and cricket-loving team.

Finally, as part of the restructure, all Lancashire county age group cricket (the Lancashire Player Pathway) and the Emerging Player Programme (EPP) have moved across to the Club’s Academy, headed by former Lancashire player Gary Yates, with Stephen Titchard as performance manager, who will both report into myself. Overall, the challenging and constructive aim of the new set up is to bring all cricketing activity within Lancashire under the Lancashire Cricket umbrella, thereby forging greater and more productive links between the recreational and elite game within the North West. The encouragement given to getting more people of all ages to play and watch the game allied to the ECB’s Cricket Unleashed initiative, can only contribute to our ultimate goals of sustaining, supporting and growing your achievements and the current club and league environment, getting more people playing the game, more people watching and the production of top quality first-class cricketers for Lancashire and England, who can all inspire youngsters and the next generation. Bobby Cross has been appointed as the chairman of the Foundation, having been a board member of the LCB for the last four years, and having played cricket through the Lancashire age groups, and is still an active player in the leagues.

Bobby has added the following message:

“This is a challenging but extremely exciting time for cricket in the region and the country as a whole. It is the aim of Lancashire to be the best cricket club in the world and our proud record of producing talented players across our club and league network will be central to that future. The celebration of the hard work that is done by so many at grass roots level to produce players who move on to representative level is high on Paul Allott’s agenda.

“The ability of those players and of Lancashire Cricket to inspire future generations to become, and remain, involved in the sport will be crucial as we seek to grow the game at all levels.”

We are very aware of the challenges facing clubs and our staff will be working more closely than ever before to give you all, and your volunteers, the tools and support to meet those challenges as we move forward together.

The Foundation board will be made up of Bobby Cross (chairman), James Sheridan (vice chairman), John Murphy (clubs and leagues director), Justin Hopwood (sales and marketing director), Lee Morgan (secretary), Graham Brindley (treasurer) and David Hodgkiss (president) with further appointments to be made in the coming weeks including a women and girls director, diverse communities director and education director.

We will continue to update you on our plans and initiatives over the coming months to bring us all closer together.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and may I take the opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas and happy new year.

Paul Allott"

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The Bury Times has also been shown an email sent by Mr Denning to clubs in the south area which reads:

"The Lancashire Cricket Foundation now has four club and community cricket managers, as below, serving all aspects of recreational cricket activity within each given area.

The team is headed up by Clinton Perren as head of cricket relationships and ultimately Paul Allott as director of cricket.

North (James Cutt), East (Ian Seddon), South (Bobby Denning), West (Paul Bryson).

As the club and community cricket manager for the south, covering clubs within the local authority boroughs of Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Tameside, Salford, North Trafford and Manchester, I am contacting you to introduce myself. We may have met previously during my time in different roles within Lancashire Cricket.

I am looking forward to supporting you as a club.

Early in the new year I will be looking to attend cricket development group meetings within each borough and as and when those details are finalised I would encourage your club to attend."