Canvas For Care at Lord’s: Art, Inclusion and Disability Cricket

Canvas For Care reached the Home of Cricket on 19 August 2026 as part of an extraordinary Festival of Disability Cricket at Lord’s — a day that brought together elite international competition, disability cricket pathways, community participation and a powerful message of inclusion.

The Festival, hosted by MCC, the England & Wales Cricket Board and Lord’s Taverners, placed disability cricket at the centre of one of the world’s most iconic sporting venues. The programme included disability cricket activity across the day and culminated in the seventh and final Vitality Mixed Disability IT20 between England and India.

The Mixed Disability format brings together players from Physical Disability, Learning Disability and Deaf cricket programmes into representative international teams. The cricket itself provided a memorable finale. India produced an outstanding performance at Lord’s, scoring 206 for 4 before dismissing England for 88 to win the match by 118 runs.

England nevertheless completed a highly competitive seven-match series as overall winners by four matches to three. Against that international sporting backdrop, Canvas For Care delivered something very special of its own. Artworks created by children aged approximately 4–16 — including children with disabilities — were exhibited and personally presented to players and representatives from both the India and England teams.

Each canvas carried a message of care, encouragement and inclusion from a young artist, allowing children’s creativity to connect directly with international sport. The result was much more than an exhibition.

Throughout the day, the Canvas For Care display became a point of conversation and connection between players, cricket administrators, public figures, civic representatives, community organisations, artists, families and supporters. Photographs captured artwork presentations, team moments, the cricket itself and the many conversations taking place around disability sport and inclusion.

Among the special moments of the day, Baroness Patricia Scotland received a Canvas For Care artwork and spent time engaging with the programme. We were also delighted to welcome the Worshipful Mayor of Harrow, Cllr Yogesh Teli, accompanied by Mayoress Neela Teli, together with Cllr Raja Zeeshan, Deputy Mayor of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and a number of other distinguished guests and representatives.

The occasion also brought together senior people helping shape disability cricket in both countries.

Ian Martin, Head of Disability Cricket at the England & Wales Cricket Board, was part of the wider day around England’s disability cricket programme, while Ravikant ‘Ravi’ Chauhan, General Secretary of the Differently Abled Cricket Council of India (DCCI), represented an organisation that has been central to building international opportunities for disabled cricketers in India.

A special acknowledgement goes to Kamal Prabhakar, Founder of KP Smart Sports and Global Ambassador — Sport & Disability Cricket for Canvas For Care, whose relationships across cricket, disability sport and international networks helped create the opportunity for Canvas For Care to be part of such a significant occasion.

Andrew Grocock, Chairman of UKABC, and Sudeep Sakalle, Vice President of UKABC, supported Canvas For Care’s participation and engagement during the day, alongside Jignesh Patel, Yash Patel, the Creative Art Campus artists, children and families behind the canvases, and the wider team who helped bring the programme together.

For Canvas For Care, this was an important demonstration of what the initiative can deliver when the right organisations come together: children’s artwork travelling from local creative settings to an international sporting stage; messages of care being handed directly to international players; and conversations opening with organisations interested in disability sport, learning disability, autism, SEND, community participation, creativity and inclusion.

Lord’s was not intended to be the end of that journey. Canvas For Care now wants to engage with more schools and SEND settings, disability and autism organisations, learning-disability charities, deaf and visually impaired communities, care organisations, arts organisations, sporting bodies, clubs, foundations and businesses looking for meaningful community and inclusion programmes.

Organisations do not need to be arts organisations to participate, and they do not need to be large. Canvas For Care can create a bridge between a child and a sportsperson, an artist and a care home, a school and a charity, a business and its community, or people whose lives may otherwise never cross.

The day at Lord’s showed what becomes possible when those connections are given the right platform — from children’s canvases to international cricketers, from community creativity to the Home of Cricket, and from a simple message of care to conversations with sporting bodies, civic leaders and organisations interested in taking inclusion further. Care connects us all.