March Newsletter 2025: Upcoming Events, New Website, Information about the 2025 Season, Volunteering/Sponsorship opportunities

This year we will be doing more free events, specifically “Diving Catches in the pool and Running in the water” on the 15th of March from 1pm to 2 pm and then on the 28th of March we have our “Free Badminton Tournament” from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. Both of these events are taking place at the Thame Leisure Centre, and they are being run by the MP Sports Development Trust. The aim of the trust is to give Children more opportunities to play sport and experience the physical and mental health benefits that come with playing sport, regardless of the financial circumstances of the child. Therefore, these events are totally free of charge to play in and open to members and non-members alike to maximise opportunity for all children. These events are first come, first serve. To register for these events, simply follow the links to our new website and fill out the booking forms:

Free Badminton Tournament – BOOK HERE!

 

Free Diving Catches in the Pool and Running in Water competition – BOOK HERE!

We are also running Easter Cricket Courses this year. The Courses are a good opportunity for Children to develop their cricket skills ahead of the season and spend time in Sunny weather with their friends. The Courses are for children aged 5-14 and offer both softball and hardball cricket. Courses are running on the following dates in the 2 weeks of the Easter Holidays and they take place from 10-3:

 

Easter Course 1: 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th April (Monday to Thursday) –Easter Course 1: Information and booking form (7th, 8th, 9th, 10th April)

Easter Course 2: 14th, 15th, 16th , 17th April (Monday to Thursday) –Easter Course 2: Information and booking Form (14th, 15th, 16th, 17th)

 

In order to book the courses or to find out more information, please do follow the links above to our website where more details and booking forms are available. If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to get in touch. 

 

 

This year, we have partnered with MP Sports Development Trust to allow children aged 5-9 to play for free with us at Lord Williams Lower school indoor sports hall for our winter indoor cricket course. This has been a huge success as we have received so many wonderful requests to be able to join and play. This wouldn’t be at all possible without all of your help and support, so therefore this year we are planning to extend this to the main season to give children from 5-9 even more opportunities to play and improve, regardless of their financial circumstances (the free coaching for 5–9-year-olds does not extend to Holiday Courses which remain a paid service). The membership section of the website lists more information about the coaching and membership benefits. For your convenience, here is the dates and times for the Academy Team Training starting in late April:

 

To become a member please read the below information Members Registration

As the eagle eyed will have noticed from above, following feedback from Parents, we have changed the training day for our U9 team from Monday evenings (as listed in the 2025 Year Plan) to Friday evenings from 5:15pm to 6:30pm. This is to avoid the training clashing with Beavers and Cubs which many of our members are also take part in. We hope that this new date and time will allow even more of you to participate when the cricket season starts in April. We were also attracted to this option as cricket training on a Friday will be a nice way for the children to finish the week and start the weekend. The first training session will therefore now be on Friday 25th April and will continue every following Friday. We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible. 

 

 

We are very excited to bring to you the new and improved MP Sports Academy website, over the years our website had become very bland and difficult to navigate, with our new dynamic website it should now load faster and give you easier access to everything you need from the academy. The new website has several new and improved sections including a member’s forum and a Ground Hire / Events section which details the other events we can run on our ground such as corporate events, arts and craft fairs and birthday parties. The website will also include details of the location and dates of Academy matches. If you have any questions about the new website, want to give feedback, or require any information please do not hesitate to email us or call the landline.

 

 

A few of you have emailed us regarding membership and how to sign up. This is not a form like with other courses. When you sign up to our website you will be given an approval email after which you will become a registered member. Please read the below instructions for more information: 

 

The new website also means that there is a new and improved process for how to register as a member of MP Cricket Academy. To become a member of the academy, you must first register online through the website and send us the registration fee. After we have confirmed we have received this fee, we will send you an approval email and then we will give you access to our website from which you can write in the Forum, see the gallery, add your own photos etc. (however, do be mindful as we will monitor inputs into the website and anything rude, controversial, or unnecessary will be removed by our moderators).

 

When you register, you must register with the details of whomever is becoming the member. If you have multiple children becoming members, each child must have their own unique login so that we can see exactly how many members have been registered to give everyone an equal opportunity.

 

If you have any problems or further questions about membership registration through the website, then please do not hesitate to contact us via email/phone/landline as we would be more than happy answer any queries and give you a step-by-step guide through the registration process. 

MP Cricket Academy Voluntary (Physical): We have recently planted some more English Willow Trees. Our ambition is that these will be turned into cricket bats for the next generation of aspiring cricketers.  We require a few people who have some free time to help water the Willow trees at the ground, they have been growing very nicely over the last few years and that is without doubt thanks to our volunteers who want to remain nameless. If you would also like to help, please contact us using the information below. 

 

MP Sports Development Trust (Admin): We would like someone to help organise events and locations and to help sort funding for the various free Events we do, for Example Sports in the Street, Free Badminton Tournaments, Free Cricket courses, Free coaching at schools etc. 

 

Alternatively, you can also help by volunteering, to do so you can visit MP Sports Development Trust and visiting the volunteering section of our website.

 

 

We are currently in the process of looking for sponsors/investors. 

 

Founder and Director, Manoj Parmar is an ex-first-class cricketer from Saurashtra in India.  Mr Parmar’s main aim is to inspire future generations of young cricketers to achieve their maximum potential and to help children become more active.  For the past 36 years, he has worked tireless to offer a high-quality coaching and competition programme in and around Thame.  He is determined to introduce children to the world of sport and offers a vast array of sporting opportunities at the ground.  MP Sports Cricket Academy offers a comprehensive list of activities throughout the year including, indoor cricket matches during the winter; soft and hard ball practice; international courses; and diving catch practice at the local pool. The ground currently boasts two full sized cricket grounds and has brand new grass nets.  Since its creation in 2009, the club has continued to grow, supporting 27 state schools in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and catering for children as young as six, up to adult. The academy has a membership of over 100, with 400 children attending cricket camps over the summer.  Clubs from across the county attend tournaments throughout the year and cricket teams/companies rent the ground for private matches and corporate events.

 

We are looking to acquire some more basic facilities at our sports ground, such as men’s and women’s toilets. Currently the cost of the changing rooms and toilets is about £25,000, this is the kind of money that we do not have. We would greatly appreciate any donations or sponsorship from your business; we will provide an invoice. Your donation would make a huge difference to our daily operations as we will be able to provide people with even more events at our ground with these facilities. Sports are vital in our daily lives, they help improve your health, mental health, and is the ideal way to get rid of your stress.

 

Any donations would be most welcome, our bank details are: Account name: MP Sports Development Trust Sort code: 30-98-56 Account number: 19852860 Cheques are also acceptable.

 

With such a vast network, sponsorship at MP Sports Cricket Academy is a great way to advertise your products or services to a whole new group of people.

 

If you are interested in sponsoring us or investing in the cricket academy, or know of a company that may be, please do let us know, we can give you a wide range of options to choose from. 

 

 

Kind regards, 

Joe Barnett