Rainford-Brent's diversity programme comes a long way fast to take top billing

CATCH a bit of England and India's star-studded ODI here today, and you will likely come across ACE: on the broadcast, billboards and the boundary cushions.

- Will Macpherson

Royal London, the series sponsor, have shared the naming rights for this game with the African Caribbean Engagement (ACE) Programme, the charity started by former Surrey and England cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent in January 2020.

Rainford-Brent's mission was to reverse the decline of black participation in cricket (which made up one per cent of the recreational game and had dropped 75 per cent at professional level). She received backing from Surrey, where she sits on the board and is director of women's cricket.

Rainford-Brent (right) tells Standard Sport that when the programme first held trials at the Oval just before the pandemic, "it was a punt".

"We didn't know if there would be a response, whether there were black kids out there playing currently, or what the interest would be," she said.