A club’s dream of a new pavilion is set to be beamed to cricket fans glued to their televisions for the Ashes which began this week.

Rainham CC’s four-year campaign to raise the £350,000 needed has been a slog but now members are giving their bid a renewed drive.

And that includes member and groundsman Chris Taylor, 51, displaying a 4ft banner when he watches the Melbourne and Sydney tests.

Chris said: “I’ll be putting the banner up somewhere in there and hopefully it will get seen. I’m also playing a match at the Bradman Oval so it will be on display there too.

“We’re going to tweet it to the Sky Sports presenters and see if they’ll give us some air time to explain the situation or at least show the banner for a few seconds.”

The club in Berengrave Lane, Rainham, launched the appeal in 2009. Since then, events and grant applications have been held but it is yet to raise all the funds to start building.

Chairman John Mitchell, 55, has lived in Rainham all his life, and followed in his father’s footsteps to play for the club.

He said: “With the economy the way it is, money is so scarce.

“The English Cricket Board (ECB) have had their funding cut by central government so their grants are harder to come by and Sport England have thousands of applications every year.

“I think this year their bids totalled around £88 million and they had only £16 million to hand out so there are a huge number of clubs like us who need the money.”

The application from Rainham for £270,000 was rejected at the second stage by Sports England in August.

Keith Chambers, 68, from Hempstead, funding co-ordinator and trustee, said: “It’s such a massive blow for us. I’m still absolutely gutted.

“They need to come down and see what we’re all about. They’d see how many members we have and how the facilities need to be expanded and improved to accommodate them. How can you decide who gets what from behind a desk? It’s madness.”

The current pavilion has been in place since 1976 and was only meant to be temporary.

John added: “We’re putting in a new kitchen because we still need to keep it at a good level for our members to use.”

The money raised from the fundraising events, including a fireworks night and beer festival, also goes on the maintenance of other parts of the club.

The pavilion fund has £18,000 in the bank towards the target.

John added: “We’ve had a lot of people, club members and the public, who have offered their services to save money on labour and local businesses have also offered materials for a reduced price so they don’t make a profit which will help us no end to achieve our goal.

Keith added: “Everything’s in place and ready to go, it’s just so frustrating that we’re being held up because of the money.”

Looking to the eventual building of the clubhouse, John said: “It’s not something we’re able to give up on, we need a new pavilion to be able to carry our club forward in to the future.

“It will mean sustainability for our club, a fantastic community space and hopefully a great place for our members to enjoy. It would be brilliant.”