For many young cricketers, making a difference to their club means scoring runs, taking wickets or helping their team win.
For 14-year-old Leeds cricketer Yuven “Yuvi” Gundeboina, this autumn it also means putting on his running shoes.
Yuvi has set himself a challenge to run and walk 150 kilometres over three months, from September to November, raising money to improve cricket equipment at his club, New Rover Cricket Club in Leeds.
The challenge is part of the ECB Champions of Change programme, which encourages young people to think about how they can make a positive difference through cricket.
Yuvi originally hoped to raise £500.
But the response from family, friends and the cricket community has already taken the fundraising total to £718 — while Yuvi himself has completed 49.22 km of his 150 km journey.
For Yuvi, however, the numbers are only one part of the story.
More than raising money
The bigger ambition behind his challenge is surprisingly simple: to encourage another young person to start one of their own.
Yuvi hopes other children will see that helping their club doesn't necessarily require doing something extraordinary.
It could start with choosing something they already enjoy.
Run. Walk. Cycle. Swim. Trek.
Or come up with something completely different.
The activity isn't the important part. Taking the initiative is.
That idea has become the message behind Yuvi's challenge:
“Different challenges. Same big impact.”
Imagine if young players at sports clubs across Leeds each chose one small challenge to help somewhere that has given them opportunities, friendships and memories.
One child might not change a club.
But hundreds of young people believing that they can contribute to their communities certainly could.
Running for the place where he plays
New Rover Cricket Club is where Yuvi plays his club cricket, including senior cricket, and the money raised through his challenge is intended to help improve equipment used for training and matches.
Rather than simply wishing the club had better equipment, Yuvi decided to see whether he could do something about it himself.
That meant committing to 150 km alongside the normal demands of school, cricket and everyday life.
Some evenings the distance might be several kilometres.
Other days need to be rest days.
Then the running shoes come out again.
Slowly, those individual kilometres are becoming 150.
And that is perhaps the most important lesson behind the challenge: big targets are often achieved through lots of small efforts.
Finding a voice beyond the cricket field
Yuvi's interest in contributing to cricket is also developing away from New Rover.
He is involved with the Lincolnshire Cricket Youth Advisory Group, working with Charlotte and Martin, where he has taken on the role of Social Media Champion.
It gives him an opportunity to think about cricket from another perspective — including how young people's ideas and experiences can be represented and shared.
For a teenager who spends much of his cricketing time thinking about batting, bowling and matches, these opportunities are showing him that there are many other ways to contribute to the sport he loves.
You can play.
You can volunteer.
You can raise awareness.
You can help your club.
And you can encourage someone else to get involved.
What could you do?
Yuvi still has plenty of kilometres ahead of him before reaching 150 km.
But perhaps the success of his challenge shouldn't ultimately be measured only by the distance on his running tracker or the amount on his fundraising page.
Perhaps it should also be measured by what happens next.
If one young cricketer reads about Yuvi and decides to cycle for their club, that's another challenge.
If another child decides to swim, walk or organise something completely different, that's another.
And if a young person simply begins to think, “What could I do to help my club or my community?”, then the idea has travelled much further than 150 kilometres.
Yuvi started by trying to make a small difference to one cricket club in Leeds.
Now he hopes his footsteps might encourage others to take the first step of their own.
Different challenges. Same big impact.
What challenge would you choose?
