Debt we owe cricket pitch

Recently I was privileged to be invited to the opening of the new Pavilion at Wolverhampton Cricket Club.

Costing more than half a million pounds, the new pavilion is a testament to the resilience and determination of all those who've contributed and fundraised on behalf of the cricket club.

I spoke to Geoff Hopkinson, the chairman, and was very disappointed to hear they had not been able to get Lottery funding because the club had a Tettenhall postcode. The automatic assumption seemed to be that because Tettenhall is a relatively prosperous area, funding the pavilion wasn't a priority for the Lottery board.

I found I could bowl at a reasonable pace during my teenage years and that cricket gave me no end of confidence. In a state comprehensive school with only a handful of Asian children I was pretty shy and kept myself to myself.

The fact that I could bowl quickly and accurately undoubtedly helped me develop academically and socially, a story which I have seen replicated among many of my friends and cousins.

Lottery funding was established to achieve just this sort of aim through sport and it is a dreadful shame that in the last decade so many deserving sporting causes have been overlooked in this way.

I, like so many, owe cricket and sport in general a huge debt of gratitude.

Paul Uppal, Wolverhampton Conservatives, Neachells Lane, Wolverhampton.