SIR - I refer to the Olympic Junior Club Support Grants scheme (T&A, January 8) offering a maximum of £500 to sports clubs to encourage more junior involvement.
While appearing to encourage applications from all clubs, Bradford Council's Head of Sport, Steve Warner, emphasises the focus on ethnic minorities, disabilities and other disadvantaged groups.
As a volunteer cricket coach for ten years now, I am dismayed at the ignorance of grass roots sport displayed here in favour of politically-correct box-ticking. I would make the following points: 1) No club I know has a selection process based on race. If a kid wants to play, they're welcome! However, we cannot change our postcodes, so if we are in the wrong area', we'll save the effort of applying and wasting our time.
2) We have to encourage able-bodied kids as well. Without mainstream sport there would be no facilities for disabled kids. The two are interlinked - you cannot focus exclusively on one group.
3) All kids, other than those privately educated, are disadvantaged in a sporting sense because of the appalling state or total lack of facilities in Bradford's schools.
Without the clubs and volunteers working their socks off, there wouldn't be cricket and rugby at all because the Council has no idea.
Steve Wilson, Lenton Villas, Idle
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