Glamorgan County Cricket Club is thrilled to have recently been awarded a Transformation Capital Grant from the Welsh Government which will see, over the next two years, an exciting re-fit of facilities, dating from 2008, associated with The Museum of Welsh Cricket, its Heritage Gallery and the adjoining areas at the Sophia Gardens ground.
The award-winning Museum, which became in 2018 the first fully accredited Cricket Museum in the UK, as well as the Heritage Gallery will have a new and updated series of displays – in both English and Welsh - which will incorporate QR codes and hyperlinks to the Museum’s website, thereby enhancing the visitor’s experience, besides helping to fully tell the story of the evolution of the summer game in Wales, with tablets and headphones also being available so that visitors have a more immersive experience and can also listen to some of the 200 or so podcasts which the Museum has created.
These enhancements will also show how cricket, the first team game in Wales, has become a game for everyone, whilst the new displays will also allow more items from the Museum’s collection to be placed on display in addition to new video loops and digital presentations. The new content in the Museum and Heritage Gallery will be in place by the start of the 2025 cricket season.
Mark Frost, Glamorgan Cricket Community and Development Manager, said:
"Glamorgan Cricket is striving to make sure that there is a warm welcome for everyone at Sophia Gardens and importantly every person feels at home and has all they need to make their visit a good one. As part of our Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Plan we want to make sure that the museum and stadium look like the whole community we are reaching out to.
“We know that to further improve this experience we need to make sure that the imagery around the museum and the whole ground is more representative of the people that play cricket today. We are determined to make sure that anyone walking into the ground sees imagery, photos and designs where they can see people like themselves and therefore can believe that the welcome is authentic and that 'cricket is a game for me'.