Birmingham Unicorns: Zoom meetings to playing at Edgbaston

Birmingham Unicorns are thought to be only the second LGBT+ inclusive cricket club in the world. The popular idea to form the club came during lockdown in 2020 with the new members first meeting on Zoom but now training at Edgbaston.

The team are set to play in their second full season, and its founding member will soon join Warwickshire's Members Committee to improve the cricket county's inclusion and diversity.

On their website the Unicorns describe the team as "a place where all LGBTQ+ people and their allies can come to play cricket, be themselves and socialise with others from the community. We encourage everyone to be themselves, free of judgement, giving all the opportunity to be part of a cricketing family".

In less than 18 months, the Birmingham Unicorns went from Zoom meetings to a social to meet each other to practising together, and then playing their first match against Graces who were the world's first LGBT+ club.

The idea for a new club came from Lachlan Smith who is now the founder and chair of the Midlands team.

He told Sky Sports News: "It all started in the first Covid lockdown. I was aware that everybody was feeling isolated, people were having mental health problems. And I know for the LGBT+ community that can be particularly profound and it was at the time.

"As a cricketer myself, I thought playing sports is a great way to help you with your mental health. And if I could open the doors for more LGBT+ people to play cricket, that would be great.

"But I thought who knows whether people actually want to do it?"

Smith was surprised by the interest from the first survey he carried out. He said: "People found out about the club or the idea for the club and they wanted to join.

"It snowballed from there