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Formal Training Courses

The recommended route of formal training for groundstaff within the recreational game is via The Grounds Management Association (GMA) who are partnered with both the ECB and Sport England to provide expertise in fine turf surfaces.

Since 2022 the main offer is via online learning. There are three levels, which can be completed independently or sequentially. Each course takes up to 6 hours and typically you will have a period of 28 days to complete this from the time that you start. Progress is saved, so you are able to pick it up as and when you have time within those 28 days. By providing the course online, the costs are also significantly reduced.

Face-to-face courses are still available on an ad-hoc basis via The GMA website.

The refreshed suite of courses available are as follows:

Both the Kent Cricket League and Kent County Village League offer subsidies towards member clubs completing these courses. For further information

For more information on formal training courses, please visit The GMA website.

Seminars

Maintaining a cricket facility can be a thankless task and we have seen great support for short, relatively informal seminars where like-minded ground-staff  can get together over some refreshments to talk ‘turf’. Our seminars generally take place of an evening or the morning of a weekend for between 2 and 3 hours.

Pitch Power (Assessments)

Pitch Power is the recognised process to assess pitch quality within cricket, football and rugby. Having been created by three National Governing Bodies and The Grounds Management Association, backed by Sport England. This replaces ECB Performance Quality Standards (PQS) reports which originated in the 2000’s.

At present, any affiliated club can request a Pitch Power Assessment by contacting Kent Cricket, who will arrange this with you and one of our appointed County Pitch Advisors. In instances where the ground is owned or maintained by another party, you will need their permission for it to take place, e.g. a local authority pitch.

The cost of an assessment is £150 plus mileage costs for the advisor, which will be agreed in advance.

Before an on-site assessment can take place, the organisation will need to complete a pre-visit information sheet. This provides the County Pitch Advisor with the necessary pre-requisite information to carry out an inspection and then issue a report.

Each report will rank the square and outfield independently on The GMA Grounds Management Framework, identifying which areas should be prioritised to improve the quality of the playing surface.

Grounds Management Toolkit

In addition to formal training and seminars, there is the free-to-access Grounds Management Toolkit. This has been produced by The GMA and ECB, to provide an encyclopaedic resource for the cricket grounds person.

Visit the Toolkit

Additionally, The ECB Pitch Doctor videos are a series of short, hands-on clips that demonstrate some of the typical tasks that volunteer and recreational ground-staff will benefit from understanding. In this playlist you can find the following topics:

  1. Pre-season rolling & marking your square
  2. Final pitch marking and preparation
  3. Repairing footholes
  4. Follow-through and general repairs
  5. Maintaining nets
  6. Plugging
  7. Pitch preparation
  8. Over-seeding and calibration

  • DSC_1313_845
  • Outfield Rotary Demo
  • Core Sample
  • Scarifier in Action
  • Variety of Cassettes