'Like many of your readers, I attended a state school in the 1950s. My school in North Staffordshire was quite small and attended by about 330 pupils per year on average aged 11 to 18. We had first and second elevens that played regularly against other schools in the area. The colts team played less frequently. All the senior schools in the area had cricket teams. As far as I am aware none of the schools, we played against has a cricket team today. Despite being part of a minor county North Staffordshire produced several England players including Ken Higgs, Bob Taylor, David Steele, Rob Bailey, Kim Barnett and Dominic Cork. This is not a complete list. Many others played county cricket with distinction.
Questions
- Would many of the players listed above even have played cricket if they had not played at school?
- How many of those people who played and enjoyed cricket at school and club level would be passionately interested in cricket today if they had not played cricket at school?
- Utopia is just a dream. But should we just give up and do nothing to bring back at least some school cricket in state schools where it is no longer played?
I appreciate that no firm answers can be given other than to say the percentages would be quite high. But it makes you realise what we have lost.
State Schools
Many schools where cricket used to be played no longer have space available and no incentive to promote cricket. Yet by doing so it would improve the health of young people. A stated aim, as far as I am aware, of all political parties. After all, cricket is our main national summer sport and has been badly let down over the years. Government need not pour vast amounts of money into school cricket but they could attach conditions to the money they do invest in the sport and pay to schools.
Private Schools
Do an excellent job in providing cricketers for county and international cricket despite educating only about six per cent of children of school age. Yet they provide a high proportion of players to the current England teams
Questions
- Where would cricket be today without private schools?
- How much stronger would county and international cricket be if state schools were also producing quality players?
Facilities
Near where I live in Derbyshire, several all-weather cricket pitches have been installed in parks. I assume the same applies in other parts of the country. Perhaps I have been unlucky but I have rarely seen them used and when they have been it has almost exclusively been by young Asian players who have organised games amongst themselves. After all, it is their national game. We cannot just leave it to Ace, Greenhouse Sports and Freddie Flintoff to revive and provide opportunities in cricket for young people. The ECB has taken several initiatives but little has been done to promote school cricket.
Questions
- Why cannot inter-school games be organised and all-weather pitches booked for matches for groups of younger boys and girls
- For senior age groups, grass pitches could be cut in parks and at those cricket clubs anxious to promote youth cricket.
Finance
The ECB’s stated aim is to promote cricket at all levels in this country and they now have vast amounts of additional income coming in annually from Television companies. They have the opportunity to at least make an impact on a regional north/south basis. The ECB could not do this all on its own and would need strong inter-government support to improve the health of children and back our national summer sport. They would need to prove the plan worked.
The Future
Any plan to considerably increase the amount of school cricket would have to be carefully drawn up and debated by those involved - but not endlessly. Regional trials perhaps in the north and south would need to be set up. Many reasons will be put forward not to attempt a scheme like this but when they are set against the perceived benefits they may not be seen as unsurmountable. As always, the success of any project depends a great deal on the persons running it. Get the right people in charge and they may well be able to recruit enthusiastic volunteers to help with the day-to-day running of the project.
Questions
- Would not the position of those who want to reduce the number of counties and as a consequence diminish the stature of the game be less relevant?
- If a whole new generation of cricketers was produced would that not increase the number of spectators at matches and revive the sport?
- Would not county cricket benefit and come under less pressure to be diminished in size and status?'
Good post but 2 mains issues now are timing of exams, state teachers and schools will not go back on this as it will impinge on the 6 week holidays...if there were any sense term times would be completely rejigged as many feel its not optimum for child development to have a 6 week recess anyway, and holidays both staggered and more spread out would be better for kids education not to mention parents,but the holidays are a big draw for many in the profession IME, and strikes would occur if forced through.
ReplyDelete2nd is volunteers - simply little interest in the game amongst a lot of regular PE teachers and especially not for the after hours times needed for it, private schools can afford to employ a cricket master, state schools have to hope a staff member is keen on the game. My school had some early lesson finishes so we could play but was a rarity and were lucky to have a dedicated PE teacher who liked the game. Of the other 4 male PE teachers none made any effort input and were it not for this one teacher i doubt we would have played it.
I don't think lack of space is an issue, most schools in my overcrowded neck of the woods still have decent sized outside areas, certainly big enough to accommodate football and cricket if they wanted, but the effort/cost to maintain even an artificial pitch isn't there for a game that suffers from lack of interest.
Essex fan
My son who is now at university went to the largest comprehensive school in the county where we live because it is wasn't a "sports academy" the school had zero interest in sport despite having several large playing fields it did not two years ago at least have any dedicated PE teachers . There is a simple explanation why countries such as Ireland and South Africa are producing cricketer's and rugby players because they still have grammar school's and such sports are a part of the curriculum
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