In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and declining interest levels, phone masts are proving to be the latest threat to club cricket’s existence.
Once a staple part of British sporting culture, club cricket has increasingly been under attack in recent years.
The Covid-19 pandemic saw participation levels dwindle to 229,100 in 2020 – 2021, according to Statista, and despite rebounding up to 358,600 in 2023 – 2024 are still yet to reach pre-pandemic levels.
The ability of the sport to captivate the hearts and minds of the public has also been hit, with a 2018 YouGov poll ranking cricket as the third most boring sport.
58% of the survey’s respondents found cricket very or quite boring, behind only golf (70%) and American Football (59%).
Despite these varied threats, hundreds of thousands of people still dust off the whites every weekend to hear the sound of leather on willow and enjoy long afternoons in the summer sunshine.
A brand new threat may just be emerging though, with an increasing number of clubs facing an uncertain future, due to the proposed installation of 5G phone masts on their grounds.
North Enfield’s phone mast woes
One such club are North Enfield, who are based on the outskirts of London and compete in the Hertfordshire Premier Cricket League.
The club were first contacted in September 2022, when the London Borough of Enfield’s consultant for mobile phone mast matters, John Goodacre, got in touch to warn the club that an inquiry had been made to host a mast on their grounds.
Since then, North Enfield have been embroiled in discussions with Cornerstone, the infrastructure management company set up between Telefonica and Vodafone, and their legal advisers Osborne Clarke.
Many of these discussions were orchestrated by Daniel Vanniasingham, the club’s Membership Secretary and 2nd XI captain at the start of the process in 2022, who also served as their General Secretary in 2024.
Vanniasingham explained that after the initial shock, his thoughts swiftly turned to the future of both the club and their grounds.
“This is completely out of the blue,” he said. “Essentially, we need to protect the cricket club’s interests at all costs, including its members.
“Would it mean potentially, worst case scenario, the end of the use of the facilities for the club as cricket playing facilities?”
North Enfield are not the first club to have had news of a potential phone mast thrust upon them.
Hornsey Cricket Club were also targeted by Cornerstone, as a potential site for a 5G mast.
Although Haringey Council were opposed to the development, describing it as “visually intrusive” to City News, they accidentally approved the development after an “IT Glitch”.
Overtime Online contacted Haringey Council to comment, but did not receive a reply.
In March, Communicorp UK were also given permission by North Herts Council to install a mast at Letchworth Cricket Club.
Fear over loss of members
Another concern for Vanniasingham was the potential reaction of the club’s membership base to the news that a phone mast was set to be installed on their Strayfield Road ground.
“He’s (John Goodacre) mentioned that in a couple of examples that it’s tricky to go into without becoming a conspiracy theorist, there are people out there who strongly object to telephone masts for a variety of reasons,” Vanniasingham said.
“We have a limited senior membership playing base, so any hit to membership numbers, as well as the membership revenue, would have a significantly detrimental impact on the health and wellbeing of the club.
“I couldn’t see any way, shape or form whereby hosting a telephone mast on club grounds would have a positive impact on North Enfield’s membership levels.”
Communication headaches all round
Goodacre, the Director of Hub Telecoms Consultancy, used to represent the phone mast companies.
However, he has since changed to represent the targets of these companies and has been extremely critical of their approach.
“They behave the polar opposite way compared to how I’d suggest they should behave, in my experience anyway,” he said.
“From the get-go, they alienate the site provider. They set up a very uncomfortable relationship from word go.”
This tallies with Vanniasingham’s description of his communication with Cornerstone and mainly their solicitors Osborne Clark as “very challenging”.
“Communication would be in a friendly, but also quite demanding manner,” he said.
“We are, including myself, very much volunteers entirely. We do it for the love of the game and the love of our club and our community.
“It’s not what anyone, including myself, would have signed up for.”
Another hurdle was Cornerstone initially wanting to site the mast in the club’s car park, which would have blocked the accessibility gate onto the pitch.
“There is also an environmental impact – reduction of grass area, reduction in tree coverage and the impact on ecosystems and biodiversity,” said former Chairman David Malleson.
Next steps at Strayfield Road
With the club cricket season currently in full swing and multiple fixtures at the ground a week, Vanniasingham has described the current situation as “a bit of an impasse”, as Cornerstone’s access to the ground is limited.
The six-month agreement that North Enfield signed for a multi-skilled visit (MSV) expired on 07th May.
Cornerstone had also expressed an interest a couple of months prior to carry out an intrusive surrey.
“They would like to do it at a portion of the ground, which is significantly detrimental to the cricket club and also outside of the scope of the agreed survey areas that was legally binding in the agreement,” said Vanniasingham.
“So my expectation is that we will have contact again around about August, September, and they’ll be very keen to prepare a new agreement to start in September, October,” he said.
Looking to the future, Vanniasingham is resigned to the fact that a mast will be installed on the club’s grounds, either before the start of the 2027 season or the following year.
Given the hard-work of volunteers such as Vanniasingham and the ability of club cricket to recover following previous setbacks, it appears that many clubs will be able to survive this latest challenge.
North Enfield’s experience shows though that more needs to be done to support these clubs and prevent them being the unexpected casualties of the 5G revolution.