After 15 long years, Tower Hamlets Cricket Club finally gets its long-awaited home pitch in Victoria Park

After years of campaigning for a home ground, the new fine-turf pitch in Victoria Park is good news for local cricketers and a landmark moment for the borough.

It has not been easy for Tower Hamlets Cricket Club. 

Most clubs have a designated home pitch, but since its foundation in 2009, Tower Hamlets Cricket Club has struggled to find a pitch to play. 

During those 15 years without a home turf, the club has faced countless problems. 

Unlike any other club in their league, circumstances have forced the team to play all over London, bouncing between pitches in Regents Park, Hackney Marshes and Barnet. 

A few years ago, unable to fulfil certain requirements, they had to leave the league they joined in 2009 and find a new one, with the majority of their senior players choosing to leave. 

“It’s been crazy,” said Shahidul Alam Ratan, a founding member of Tower Hamlets Cricket Club. He told the Slice that he has been campaigning for the pitch since 2009. 

Remarkably, the club has managed to stay together and even secure two promotions along the way. 

Finally, after years of waiting, on 13 November, Mayor Luftur Rahman announced plans to build the club a new fine turf pitch in Victoria Park. It will be completed by June 2025. 

There are two types of cricket pitches: fine-turf pitches and non-turf pitches (NTPs). 

Whilst Tower Hamlets already had several NTPs—synthetic pitches mostly used for recreational purposes—the new fine turf pitch in Victoria Park is the first of its kind to be built in the borough.

With the exception of the City of London, Tower Hamlets is the last borough in England to receive a pitch of this type. 

According to Josh Knappett, Facilities and Project Lead at Middlesex Cricket, despite a clear interest in the sport, “the borough has been severely undersupplied with both facilities and with traditionally operating cricket clubs.”

Part of the difficulty, confirms Ratan, is that the borough has traditionally favoured football as a sport.

In 2023, the final report of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) concluded that “there is a [structural] prevalence of elitism and class-based discrimination” in the sport. 

It also identified serious barriers for people from ethnically diverse backgrounds. 

Despite South Asians making up 30-40% of the game’s recreational population, they represent just 5% of its elite level. 

Tower Hamlets has historically been one of London’s most socially deprived and ethnically diverse boroughs. 

The challenges faced by Tower Hamlets Cricket Club reflect the inequalities found to exist in the sport.

Andrew Miller, UK editor of ESPNcricinfo.com and a member of Victoria Park Community Cricket League, says that “over the years, a huge number of cricketers would have come through [Tower Hamlets]. 

“Yet only a handful will have gone on to be coaches at county level – hardly any of them will have gone on to any sort of representation.” 

For Miller, this new pitch matters because “now there is a chance for that to change.” 

For the first time, cricket in Tower Hamlets will have a stable and recognisable home. 

“There is no shortcoming of talent in this borough,” Ratan told the Slice. “But when I first came here I realised there was a lack of support for children and young people [who wanted to play cricket.]” 

The significance of this new pitch, he said, is that it “will create a pathway that didn’t exist before.” 

According to Miller, the building of this new pitch is largely thanks to the persistence of Ratan, who he describes as a “tireless operator”.

But he also suggested that the conclusions made by the ICEC report played an important role in the success of this recent campaign. 

Building this pitch is “part of the effort cricket is making to make amends for the failures of its past.” 

According to a press release from Tower Hamlets council, the pitch will be funded by the London Cricket Trust (LCT), the English & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the council itself.

Alongside the building of this new pitch, the council and its partners aim to invest a further £150,000 in cricket facilities across the borough in the next two years. 

In a statement made to the Slice, the council said that some of this investment was already underway. An existing NTP in Millwall Park is due to be replaced, and a second (new) NTP is to be installed in the summer. 

There are also plans to put practice nets in Millwall Park and Stepney Green Park. 

Providing these investments “pan out as they should”, Miller believes they will positively impact cricket in Tower Hamlets. 

After years of being in the dark, the future certainly looks bright for cricket in Tower Hamlets.

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