Key facts
- Rishi Sunak urged Andy Burnham to reinstate a £35 million funding pledge for cricket domes.
- The original pledge aimed to build 16 domes across England by 2029.
- Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy called the original announcement a "fantasy" with no funding attached.
- The government has committed £1.5 million for two new indoor sports domes in Luton and Lancashire.
- The Luton dome will be a seven-lane facility opening in early 2026.
- The Lancashire dome will be a five-lane facility opening next summer.
Rishi Sunak has called on Andy Burnham to reinstate a £35 million funding commitment for building "cricket domes." The pledge was made by Sunak when he was prime minister, with the aim of improving grassroots cricket facilities for state school children. However, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy stated that the original announcement was a "fantasy" and that no funding was actually attached to it.
The government has now pledged £1.5 million for two new indoor sports domes, one in Luton and one in Lancashire. Nandy described this as a "significant step" at a time when "public finances are very very tight."
The original plan, announced last year, envisioned the construction of 16 domes across England before 2029 to enable year-round play. A portion of the funding was also intended for charities to help one million state school pupils play cricket. These plans were reportedly under threat due to government spending cuts.
The new dome in Luton is scheduled to open in early 2026 and will feature seven lanes, also usable for hockey and tennis. The five-lane dome in Lancashire is expected to open next summer and will be located at Farington, near Preston, on a site also being developed by Lancashire County Cricket Club.
ECB chair Richard Thompson commented that these domes would be "transformative" and help make cricket "the most inclusive team sport." A pilot dome project in Bradford, funded by the ECB, opened in autumn 2023, and two further ECB-part-funded domes are in development in Walsall and Darwen.