A campaign started by cricket-lovers in Staffordshire has already raised thousands of pounds for the NHS amid the coronavirus pandemic.
David Fairbanks from Audley and friends Craig Barker and David Edwards decided to launch ‘Smash The Tash – Cricketers Against Covid-19’, which encourages fellow cricket players and fans to grow a moustache, two days before the cricket season would have started to raise money for the NHS.
The initiative encourages people to donate the money usually used for subs and refreshments to the cause, also asking participants to grow facial hair throughout the lockdown and then on the eve of their first game.
The fundraiser has already brought in over £6,000.
David Fairbanks told Sport in Staffs: “The idea started about 10 days into lockdown two days prior to our first game.
“A string of WhatsApp messages between me, Craig Barker and David Edwards basically passing the time exchanging cricketing anecdotes and taking the mickey out one another branched off towards who could grow the most facial hair until a ball was bowled.
“I then slept on it and thought it had the genuine potential to be a good fundraiser for our NHS heroes on the frontline. The other lads agreed – so we then started targeting we’ll know lads around in the local cricketing community. They were all on board straight away.”
David explained how their target has been greatly surpassed.
“Our target initially was £500. That was surpassed in two hours. Credit must go to all the lads on this because the news spread pretty rapidly around north Staffordshire.
“Seven days in and we’ve past £5,500 which shows you how proud we are in the area and how cricket means to us.
“We’ve now had to set up an official twitter and Instagram account because we want to raise awareness beyond the Stoke-on-Trent ‘boundary rope’.”
Smash the Tash has now reached a global audience with messages of positivity and support from people in many different countries in other continents such as the USA, South Africa and Australia.
“We haven’t put a timescale on it as yet as we want this to keep people’s spirits high, to use it as platform to see if they can be proactive and make any kind of difference,” David continued.
“The weekends are always going to be tough so we want people to keep checking in on us to see how they can help as it’s also a good distraction from what’s going on in the world right now.”
An endless number of cricket clubs in Staffordshire have shown their support and donated to the initiative.
To view and donate to the fundraiser click here.
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