ECB headquarters at Lord's

The England and Wales Cricket Board was established on January 1 1997 as the single national governing body for all cricket in England and Wales. It has its headquarters at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London.

ECB reported a 27 per cent increase in participation in club and school cricket during 2006-07, with women’s and girls' cricket recording the sharpest rise of 45 per cent.

ECB was responsible for pioneering Twenty20 cricket in the First-Class and international arena. Since the first Twenty20 tournament in 2003, the total number of spectators watching domestic cricket annually in England & Wales has increased by 21.7 per cent.

The aggregate attendance figure for international matches in England and Wales during 2007 was more than 809,000.

The increased popularity of cricket in England & Wales combined with the strength of the domestic and international game has enabled ECB to attract and retain a number of high profile commercial partners such as Vodafone, npower, NatWest, Red Bull, HUGO BOSS, Buxton and adidas.

How the ECB and local Boards work together

The ECB and 39 County Boards have four core roles and responsibilities: strategic planning, programme management, performance management, and effective governance.

Agreed collective responsibility and common goals – participation, club accreditation, club members, coaching roles, volunteer roles and player development – are worked towards by the County Boards, who are best placed to deliver.

Within the new structure is a system to reward performance, provide integrated investment and ensure effective relationships with key partners at all levels. Local needs are met by local partnerships but sustained through a national funding and administration system.

The head offices, the County Boards, are supported by the branch offices, the 1,400 Focus Clubs, each of which has a detailed development plan.

This allows the ECB to pinpoint the needs and aspirations of each of those Focus Clubs who are judged by five key performance indicators - increased participation, increased club membership, club accreditation, increase in coaching roles and increase in volunteers.

Planning decisions are made through the 39 local CCB Operational Management Groups which involve key personnel from the County Boards, the County Sports Partnership and the County Development Managers.

This single decision body is responsible for strategic planning, investment priorities, activity planning and the measuring and analysing of performance.

ECB has established a single integrated planning process which is called the County Cricket Board Improvement Planning Process, which allows self-assessment against a process of local circumstances need.

The County Boards are again accountable for the delivery of the action plan in order to qualify for funding and this process is reviewed twice a year.

The structure also positions CCBs firmly within the Delivery System for Sport in which 49 County Sport Partnerships work to an agreed Memorandum of Understanding which formalises a common set of KPIs, a performance management framework, core roles and responsibilities and a joint planning, investment and decision making process.

This allows ECB to secure support from the nine Sport England Regions and the Sports Council for Wales, 49 County Sport Partnerships and 400 Community Sports Networks. This is backed up by a robust data system.

This is the County Board Management System which contains the detailed information such as Headline KPIs, detailed activity planning, core reference, year-on-year progress and a breakdown, by geographical areas, of investment and accreditation.