To celebrate 2017: Year of Legends - each month Sport Wales will be announcing a community sport legend and we\'re delighted to confirm January’s legend is Ali Abdi, Cricket Wales BME Co-ordinator.
2017: The Year of Legends provides an opportunity to shine a light on the very best of Welsh culture during the year and to celebrate a wealth of sporting icons and cultural events.
For those unfamiliar Ali has led on the delivery of the award-winning BME community cricket programme, Cricket Beyond Boundaries.
Indeed Ali is an enthusiastic and charismatic figure within the Grangetown community in Cardiff, and this enthusiasm is one of the key reasons the programme has been so successful. His knowledge of the BME community has been instrumental in engaging with the project's target group and he has enabled the delivery of pop up cricket clubs across Cardiff, targeting areas short on resources and facilities for cricket.
Funded by the Calls4Action programme launched by Sport Wales - and funded by the National Lottery - to help tackle inequality by using sport to breakdown cultural and economic barriers between communities, the programme has been the catalyst for two more BME projects in Newport and Swansea. Its success has been recognised through winning prestigious ECB awards, the Asian Cricket diversity award and ECB Comunity Programme BOCA.
Mark Frost, Community & Development Manager for Glamorgan CCC and Cricket Wales speaks extremely highly of Ali and the project: "We have been delighted with our BME cricket project, especially because it has unearthed both boys and girls into playing cricket regularly. Ali has been an excellent asset in how he has networked and connected with different community groups, showing his understanding of different ethnicities and how to put activity on using local volunteers."
Ali is truly a Welsh sporting community legend. Through the result of his hard work many young people have had the opportunity to participate in cricket who would not have done so before, and he's created a sustainable network of volunteers to ensure the project sees continued growth and success.
Sport Wales Senior Officer Susie Osbourne said: "The Cricket Beyond Boundaries project has gone from strength to strength with increasing participation through indoor sessions over the winter and more girls getting involved. Ali's boundless enthusiasm in leading this project has been a huge part of its success, as has his support to new volunteers within the BME community. He thoroughly deserves this recognition."
We'd like to say huge thank you to Ali for his commitment and dedication, and congratulations on being our January legend. #YouSportLegend #GwladGwlad
Take a closer look at the Cricket Beyond Boundaries project below