More than cricket
Cricket Arena CIC is a not-for-profit community sports organisation working across north and east Sheffield — Burngreave, Page Hall, Fir Vale, Firth Park, Shiregreen and Darnall — with our administrative base at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park. Every week hundreds of people play with us, from children picking up a bat for the first time to over-50s staying active. Our sessions are kept accessible and affordable, and everyone is welcome, wherever they live.
Weekly Participants
Coaching Hours
Competitive Matches
Community Partners
Big Bash Indoor League, 2018: one of our first leagues.
Cricket Arena began in 2017 with a social media page and an indoor league at YMA.
We grew up on these streets. As teenagers in the 2010s there was no youth club and nothing organised to join, so we played in streets, car parks and parks. We built what we wished we'd had.
In 2020 we asked Sheffield's cricket community what stopped them playing: somewhere to play, and the cost. We still ask. A youth forum, surveys and regular feedback shape what we run next.
We'd seen good projects end when the funding did. So in December 2022 we became a Community Interest Company, running programmes that come back year after year.
Our players, in their own words.
feel part of a supportive community
say their confidence has grown
say their mental wellbeing has improved
From our 2026 participant survey (55 responses).
Our players' stories reach far beyond Sheffield: 44M+ views on our TikTok videos and the Cricket Yorkshire Award for Best Use of Social Media.
Figures from platform analytics, September 2026.
Our programmes grow with what people ask for: football started because our young players asked for it, and 50 Not Out was shaped with the people who play in it. Have a look at our programmes and find one that fits you.
Nobody's time with us should be a one-off. Every card below is a real before and after: where someone started with us, and where they are now. One thing leads to another, and we keep building new routes.
Cricket Arena in the Mosques
Playing for Sheffield at Yorkshire finals
Our junior street sessions
Playing men's cricket for Yorkshire
Our Youth Sports Club
ECB coaching course and coaching roles
Our women's sport sessions
Coaching courses and leading sessions
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Playing in the Big Bash Indoor League
Commentary, management and umpiring
Inactive for many years
Active every week with our 50 Not Out
Our leadership team, backed by a wider team of qualified coaches and volunteers, including young coaches who started as players with us.
Grew up in north Sheffield and trained as an architect, then delivered the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation's Fir Vale pilot. When it ended, he set up Cricket Arena CIC to do it properly: locally owned, locally run, and here to grow with the community it serves.
Nineteen years with the Yorkshire Cricket Board and Yorkshire Cricket Foundation, working with over 200 schools. An ECB Advanced Coach and our Designated Safeguarding Officer.
Came to us as a league player, umpired our leagues, and now coaches our juniors. A sports development graduate, ECB-qualified coach and Deputy Safeguarding Officer.
Company no. 14549024, registered in England and Wales. Any profit goes back into the community.
Our safeguarding policy and a named Designated Safeguarding Officer cover every session. Read the policy
Every coach is DBS-checked, safeguarding-trained and holds a coaching qualification.
We hold public liability insurance covering every session, league and event we run.
To improve lives through sport, for every age: a child finding a team, a coach earning their first qualification, an over-50 playing every week. A permanent home in Sheffield, where our community programmes and our Academy sit side by side, would let us do that for more people, for longer.
An early design for a permanent home, drawn by our Founding Director, Hamzah Hussain, during his Master of Architecture at the Sheffield School of Architecture. Read about the design
Weekly sessions and leagues for every age, in the neighbourhoods people live in. Reaching the people hardest to reach, building skills, confidence and better lives, week in, week out.
Taking players from our programmes further, with routes into county age-group cricket and beyond. The next generation of Sheffield cricketers, grown here.
What we do every week, with the key partners and supporters who back us, is the heart of Cricket Arena. A home of our own would help it grow. Whether you're a player, parent, volunteer, partner or supporter, there's a role for you.
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