The Trent Bridge Community Sports Trust is the charitable arm of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. Established in 2008 the Trust concentrates its efforts by embedding itself in the local community working with the most disadvantaged young people.

"At the outset, our aspiration was to become the leading county in terms of community involvement,” said Community Sports Trust Manager Tracey Francis.

“We want to reach new audiences and create lifelong memories and participation in sport and physical activity. It all starts by working with young people."

Tracey has led the organisation for three years having spent the previous four as the East Midlands Development Manager for Sport England. The Gedling-born sports enthusiast is determined to continue to evolve the club's community output and develop structures to benefit all aspects of the Trust as well as Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, Trent Bridge and the Nottinghamshire Cricket Board.

"Winning the Best Community Programme at the ECB Awards in 2010 and 2011 is an achievement of which we are rightly proud but we have to continue to improve by enhancing our schemes," said Tracey.

"It's not just about hitting targets, it's about improving our processes, reaching our community milestones and developing partnerships, It will be a long-term process.

"As a club, we've got real aspirations and some innovative schemes in the pipeline to help the community team to achieve something quite special and take Nottinghamshire to the top of the leader board in cricket development and beyond.

"We want to create a legacy of community sport that's self-sustainable. If we do our job properly we should push a lot of the emphasis to our community clubs who should be in a position to deliver the programmes themselves but it's down to us to lead the way."

Hot on the heels of recognition for a world-record breaking cricket tournament which attracted 2010 players last season, Judges heaped praise on the club’s Positive Futures scheme which beat off competition from Derbyshire, Essex and Durham to retain the coveted Business of Cricket Award.

"Positive Futures has been hugely successful in tackling juvenile crime and anti-social behaviour in Cotgrave and we are delighted that the impact that it has had on the lives of so many young people has been recognised with this award," said Tracey.

"We have worked very hard to establish a meaningful community programme that goes beyond the development of cricket and this award is a great endorsement for Mark Clifford who leads the scheme and everyone who has been involved.”

Nottinghamshire's community commitment featured prominently in their Ashes bid document and the award of the club's preferred package will serve as a springboard for further innovation.

"We are already making plans to ensure that we harness the legacy opportunities presented by 2013 and 2015 Ashes Tests," said Tracey.

"When we were awarded the matches there was momentary celebration and then a stark realisation that we have a lot of work to do to grasp the opportunity that we have been given."