Cricket dome created in bid to boost the game

A £1.2m indoor cricket facility has opened with the aim of getting more people into the sport.

It has been built in Willenhall at the home of Sporting Khalsa Football Club, with some of the funding coming from money generated by national cricket tournament The Hundred.

The site was formerly wasteland and Richard Thompson, the chair of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), said: "Cricket needs all weather facilities, it needs things that can serve the whole community, not just part of it."

This facility is the third of its kind built with the support of the ECB and it can accommodate three batting lanes or an indoor match.

Thompson added: "We've done so much in cricket to grow the game, but without facilities like this it's really difficult."

Jason Britton, Staffordshire Cricket Development Officer, said: "We need more informal pay-as-you-play sort of scenarios where people can just rock up, get a bat, get a ball and have a whack."

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