From alcohol free family stand to steward at the press of a button: Changes at Edgbaston to make cricket ‘safe and welcome for all’

To deal with the same, the authorities have worked on a number of measures, as said by Warwickshire CCC Chief Executive Stuart Cain, who was present at the venue on Friday.

“We’ve done a number of things the first time here,” Cain said.

“We’ve got the alcohol-free family stand behind us. All the bars are alcohol free as well around the ground. Beer choices and soft drinks on them. We’ve opened multi faith rooms. We’ve also opened sensory rooms for people that might just need a somewhere to get a bit of a breather from the noise and the madness.”

🗣 “You can just literally press a button, report the incident and within minutes a steward will come down and sort it out”

Warwickshire CCC Chief Executive Stuart Cain says they have made changes to the Edgbaston ground to make it ‘safe and welcome for all’ 🏏 pic.twitter.com/lPaxGCvmSM

— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 1, 2022

England Cricket’s measures have been in the line of their plans to ensure more families with children attend matches. In Cain’s words, to make sure that anybody from any walk of life ‘feels welcomed to come and enjoy cricket’.

He further explained how they’ve changed a way to respond to issues on ground.

“Through our app now, if anyone does feel they’re intimidated or there’s things that they don’t like, you can literally just press a button and report the incident and within minutes, the steward will come down and sort it out,” Cain said.

Quite a few cricket administrators in England, as reported by The Times, have been of the belief that cricket may face issues similar to what football did at the end of last year’s Men’s European Championship. County chiefs have also warned those attending the matches about the consequences of their actions even leading to life long bans.