OUR ORGANISATION
At Bat For a Chance, we believe cricket is more than a game — it’s a force for social change.
The charity provides Cricket Equipment and funds Cricket for Social Change projects, both operating in the UK and around the world. Working with a host of major corporates, NGO’s, sports organisations and partner charities.
Every bat, every ball, every kit we provide opens a door — creating opportunities, promoting education, and empowering underserved communities.
From supporting refugees, schools and communities in the UK to empowering girls in the Caribbean, teaching carpentry in Sri Lanka, to addressing youth unemployment in South Africa, our work proves that cricket can change lives — and we’re here to make that happen.
To help, you can donate your unused or second-hand cricket clothing and equipment via your school or local club, or make a donation here.
Meet The Team
Will Gaffney
Will Gaffney
Will, our founder, is a keen grassroots and village cricketer who has also played at higher levels, including on tours to Sri Lanka. It was here Will saw first–hand the enormous impact that cricket can have on the lives of those less fortunate than him. This resulted in Will, then aged only 15, founding Bat for a Chance, a young and exciting cricket charity which provides kit to underprivileged players all across the world, and helps to grow the game of cricket. Will has made it his mission to bring smiles to adults and children around the globe, offering opportunities to play and love the wonderful game of cricket. Will has connected with cricketers in Uganda, the UK, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and thousands of Afghan refugees across Europe. Outside of Will’s charity work he is a student studying his A levels “in his spare time”. Will loves his rugby, as well as his cricket – and he is an inspiration to all those involved in the charity.
Omar Khan
Omar Khan
Omar is one of the UK’s foremost sports’ marketers and a leading agent for rightsholders, with a particular emphasis on cricket and rugby. He is
an MCC member and supports Charlton Athletic. Omar has a network of clients and partners in the USA, the West Indies, Europe, India and Asia and has been a successful bridge between commercial organisations and sports teams and players seeking to secure significant revenue streams from sponsorship. Omar has previously worked with leading charities “The British Asian Trust” and “Chance to Shine” and has adopted Bat for a Chance because he believes cricket is a great way of bringing people together across continents and class and is busy connecting the charity with both income streams and on–the–ground projects across the world from his network of clients and partners. Omar will be leading the Board of Trustees as the charity continues to grow.
Nicky Gaffney
Nicky Gaffney
Mum to Will, Nicky helps him with the day to day running of the charity. She is a consultant Solicitor, and has worked in City firms and as in–house counsel. Her areas of experience include acquisitions, property finance and development, employment, commercial contracts, and general corporate issues. Her clients have been from across sectors – government, finance, retail, leisure, logistics, energy, commercial property, and construction. As a Head of Legal, Nicky set up and ran the European legal department, head–quartered in the UK, of an international conglomerate, overseeing high value international acquisitions, disposals and property re–developments. Nicky is a qualified parent support worker and has founded a successful floristry business which remains a creative outlet. She is a school Governor and thanks to Will & his brother’s passion for cricket has developed a love for (watching) the game.
Jamie Lowe
Jamie has over 30 years’ experience in investment banking and asset management raising capital and structuring funds predominantly in alternative income strategies. Previously he has held senior roles at HSBC, BNP Paribas, Investec Bank, JP Morgan and Aberdeen Standard Life. He has been an advisor to several Plc boards and has served on the boards of funds and an asset management company. He has been working in media finance since 2017 and recently co-founded Allegro Content, a film production and financing company, where he is responsible its commercial and strategic development strategy.
Jamie graduated from University College London in 1991. He lives in Somerset with his family and dogs and enjoys playing golf, boules, ski-ing and walking and is an avid supporter of cricket and rugby.
Ebba Qureshi
Ebba Qureshi
Ebba is a serial social entrepreneur and women’s rights campaigner, who heads–up “FemGames”, a specialist girls empowerment and education initiative, delivered through a sports’ curriculum, aimed at enhancing the life–chances of young women in Pakistan. Ebba also heads–up “The Women’s Walkathon”. Well–networked with the British–Pakistani and British–Asian community through the British Pakistan Foundation, Ebba was a nominee for Pakistan Power 100 list of most influential people. She is married to the former bowling coach of the Pakistan national team, and former Pakistan international Azhar Mahmood. Ebba loves her cricket.
Carl Brown
Carl Brown
Carl is a Chartered Accountant having spent the last 20 plus years working in the insurance broking and employee benefits sector as a director of a number of companies within the Group. Having stepped down from an Executive position to pursue other interests, Carl is delighted to have recently been appointed Treasurer and Trustee of Bat for a Chance enabling him to combine his passion of cricket with assisting the charity in its development and objectives.
Having loved cricket since an early age, Carl has played at all stages in life from school, university, wandering sides, club cricket in the Surrey Championship and overseas in Hong Kong. Having also been fortunate to tour several countries including Kenya, Malaysia, Dubai and India, Carl has seen first-hand the joy and difference that cricket makes to young people’s lives and is looking forward to helping make a real difference in providing access to cricket to those without the same opportunities.
Outside of cricket, Carl enjoys golf and travel.
Gordon Lee
Gordon Lee
Gordon is a Barrister specialising in Public Law, Immigration and Asylum, Civil Liberties and Human Rights, having worked on many landmark Public Law cases, including before the Supreme Court. Instructed by a wide variety of Claimants challenging public bodies and Government Departments, with a particular interest in judicial reviews of alleged unlawful detention and higher court appeals. When it comes to cricket Gordon has always had a passion for the game and has represented England in the Lawyers Cricket World Cup on multiple occasions. This enabled him to travel to many cricket–loving countries including Sri Lanka, Australia, Pakistan and India. He has also played in Rwanda where cricket is slowly but surely on the rise following the opening of the National Cricket Stadium in Kigali, allowing Gordon to witness first–hand how cricket can change lives.
Dan Imison
Dan has over 25 years of experience as a management consultant providing hands on support and leadership to boards and management teams in designing and executing financial transformations of their business. He has worked across many different industries and geographies.
Outside of work, Dan spends his time watching his children’s various sporting activities as well as playing cricket for his local village team in Kent.
Leigh Burns
Leigh Burns is the founder and CEO of Lacuna Sports Ltd, a women’s performance cricketwear company created to address the massive gap in the market for female cricketers. Starting in 2019, Leigh identified this gap from the experience of her teenage daughter, excelling at the sport yet being forced to wear ill-fitting clothes made for boys or men. 6 years on, Lacuna has gained a passionate following and is one of the pioneering young British brands shaping the future of inclusive sportswear. It is a partner and kit supplier to leading organisations championing women’s access to opportunity such as MCC Foundation, Take Her Lead, FairBreak Global and Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST).
Leigh has worked with Bat for a Chance since Lacuna’s inception as part of her commitment to extending access to female cricketwear in the UK and beyond. In 2024 she joined the team as a Trustee to advocate for the needs of female cricketers across diverse backgrounds and communities around the world.
Prior to launching Lacuna Sports, Leigh had a long corporate career in global healthcare management. She spent the 10 years prior to Lacuna Sports at International SOS, a global travel risk management and assistance company, holding various executive commercial and strategic roles serving complex, multi-cultural environments around the world.
Adrian Yalland
Adrian Yalland
Adrian is a member of the Bar of England and Wales and a member of the Honorable Society of Middle Temple and works as General Counsel in an international and offshore practice advising and representing clients across the EEA, Bermuda, Singapore and Hong Kong. Prior to his legal career he worked on public policy in London and Brussels. He has significant experience in international development – he established an enterprise helping tourists use short breaks to fund and volunteer–on international development projects and in 2007 devised and managed a development trip for 40 MPs (including David Cameron) to Rwanda. Whilst working there, Adrian helped to establish a Cricket Academy on an old minefield in Kigali awhich led to the “Cricket Builds Hope” project which later
funded and built the National Cricket Stadium. Adrian has worked in similar development projects in India and Sri Lanka. He has been forced to retire from playing competitive cricket and rugby through injury but has a continued passion for both sports supporting Exeter Chiefs and Surrey CCC.
Will Atkinson
Will Atkinson has known Will G since birth, having been a close family friend for many years. The peak of his cricketing career came with selection for both his school and university Barbados cricket tours, as 12th man in charge of sun cream and swimming towels. Since that high point, his cricket career has moved to the village squares of Somerset and Devon, the Lord Ian Botham stand at Taunton and the Upper Edrich at Lords. Having worked as a lawyer in London and Hong Kong, he moved to the West Country to establish a farm and cheese business with his wife. He now teaches at Exeter University, while scribbling bits and pieces of copy and continuing to plan his magnum opus. Mid-life hobbies now include encouraging his daughter to play cricket and golf; crossing the Exe estuary to the Turf pub as often as possible; and reactivating a dormant gardening gene (how much pride can one man have in a small courtyard garden?). However, the most exciting thing that has happened to him in years is being asked to write the BFAC’s blog…
Mike Webb
Mike spent 30 years working at a market leading investment management company based in Kent and London.
His career was largely spent in Administration but also had exposure to Technology, Risk and Governance functions as well as the management of large change programmes. Mike was also a member of several boards and was an Approved Person under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regime.
In 2018, Mike took the opportunity to retire from investment management and joined Invicta Cricket Coaching as a Director.
Invicta work with schools, clubs and individual players providing coaching services and also run the local junior cricket leagues.
They also have two of the eight Kent area cricket franchises, running annual programmes for the North and West Kent areas.
Mike’s main focus has been on the management of the company including administration, finance, planning and scheduling as well as working as a coach. Mike is also the Chairperson of Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club having stepped up from the role of Youth Chair in 2022.
Carl Brown
Carl is a Chartered Accountant having spent the last 20 plus years working in the insurance broking and employee benefits sector as a director of a number of companies within the Group. Having stepped down from an Executive position to pursue other interests, Carl is delighted to have recently been appointed Treasurer and Trustee of Bat for a Chance enabling him to combine his passion of cricket with assisting the charity in its development and objectives.
Having loved cricket since an early age, Carl has played at all stages in life from school, university, wandering sides, club cricket in the Surrey Championship and overseas in Hong Kong. Having also been fortunate to tour several countries including Kenya, Malaysia, Dubai and India, Carl has seen first-hand the joy and difference that cricket makes to young people’s lives and is looking forward to helping make a real difference in providing access to cricket to those without the same opportunities.
Outside of cricket, Carl enjoys golf and travel.