Grassroots Development in Cricket

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

ATEEQ RASHID

P.E

TASK 4

LOCAL AND NATIONAL

PROVISION

Grassroots Development

The national governing body for cricket is the ECB (English And Wales Cricket Board). The ECB commits 11% of its broadcast revenue to funding grassroots cricket. Over the past four years, the Cricket Foundation, which supports grassroots development activities has spent over £12 million supporting local clubs, coaches, teachers, and parents to enable youngsters to play cricket. Also, the government’s announcement that £750 million from the ‘New Opportunities Fund’ will be allocated to upgrade and refurbish sports facilities in schools. The investment is urgently needed and the ECB is keen to work with local authorities in helping to determine where the money is sent.

There are many schemes run by the ECB to increase the development of cricket. Recently, the ECB launched a package called ‘Howzat’. This is an educational resource pack for teachers. It was developed in collaborations with educationalists and fully conforms to the national curriculum. Various initiatives such as Inter-cricket and Kwik-cricket are excellent for youngsters who are new to the game.

Inter cricket can be played in the playground, on grass, indoors or outdoors, it therefore underlies the ECB’s commitment to promoting the game to people in the inner city areas and ethnic minorities.

Kwik cricket resembles cricket but without the complex rules and the hard ball. Kwik cricket is easy to understand and very enjoyable to play. Children who play kwik cricket are being encouraged to use their skills and knowledge to continue.

These games support teachers in delivering aspects of the national curriculum relating to the games or activities in physical education. It is designed to ensure that newcomers in cricket are able to acquire as much pleasure and satisfaction from these activities.

Sponsors such as Natwest bank, One 2 One, Vodaphone, Pepsi, etc play a vital role in grassroots development. The sponsors provide money for various leagues and tournaments. For example, Natwest bank sponsored the two match series between England and Pakistan. In this series, the sponsors allowed children to come free on the last day and held under 15 cricket matches during the breaks.

Pathways For Elite Performers

The ECB has developed a national strategy identifying seven steps prior to the development of cricket and pathways for elite performers. The seven steps provide a national framework which cricket will be introduced locally.

It is very important that each step is interpreted by the ‘County Cricket Boards’ according to specific circumstances, such as people with disability, needs of women, men, girls, boys, religion and ethnic communities, and the inner city areas. The seven steps are:

Primary Schools
Secondary Schools
Club Cricket
District Cricket
Representative Cricket
First Class County
England Teams

Primary schools

The aim is to make sure every primary school boy and girl is introduced to cricket and has equal opportunities to acquire an interest in the game. The main objective for introducing cricket to primary schools is to sustain good relationships with key decisions-makers to meet the requirements of the national curriculum.

Secondary schools

The ECB wants to ensure that all secondary school students have the opportunity to develop their respective range of cricket skills, understanding, enjoyment and appreciation of the game. In secondary schools, the ECB works with other agencies to ensure the continued inclusion of cricket in the national curriculum at all levels including sports related GCSE courses. This strategy encourages secondary schools to offer opportunities for students to develop their personal range of cricket skills. For example, secondary schools are involved in ‘County Board’ endorsed activities to additional and specific quality resources.

Clubs

The mission ...

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Secondary schools

Clubs

The mission for this aspect of the national strategy is to ensure that every person, including players of all levels of experience and ability have an opportunity to play and become involved in fully structured, organised and resourced club environment.

Focusing on cricket offers individuals high quality structured coaching and competitive cricket opportunities for all playing members.

District cricket

District cricket ensures that a range of cricket activities is structured, organised and delivered locally to offer opportunities for quality coaching and competition. The main objective is to ensure that high quality structured, coaching, competitive opportunities are available locally to all children, and young people who wish to develop their cricketing ability. Also, it gives county clubs opportunity to come and identify talented players so they can be given a contract.

Representing Cricket

This stage allows individuals to identify and develop selected players through high quality coaching, support and competitive programmes. The ECB aims to encourage and support the development of county age groups and adult squads, delivered by ‘County Board’ in conjunction with ‘Minor County Clubs’ where appropriate. For example, players in their age group (U13, U15, U16… and adults) get selected for their regional squads.

First Class County Cricket

First Class County Cricket ensures a high competitive and attractive programme, which commands the attention, interest and support of the public, media and commercial partners. The ECB has requirements for this stage. For example, they have to ensure that an appropriate network of First Class County Cricket Grounds is maintained and constantly improved in order that the staging and facility requirement can be fully fulfilled. Also, this stage presents First Class County as a professional, high quality, exciting, enjoyable, and beneficial activity to commercial partners.

England Teams

The mission here is to achieve consistently high levels of success on the international stage, within the framework of the ICC in a manner which develops a strong sense of national pride in the England representative teams. The main aim is to provide a high quality, structured management and coaching regime delivering training and development opportunities to select potential England players at all levels.

Additional bodies

There are many additional agencies and bodies to help with the development and funding of cricket. Some of which are:

Active Sports

Active Sports is a five-year development programme targeting ten sports. The sports bodies main aim is to help young people to get more from their involvement in sports.

The Active Sports programme brings significant funding to cricket. This investment will help to provide:

More coaches, better-quality coaching and more coaching opportunities for young people to improve their performance, and attain more success.
More and easier access to cricket, giving young people opportunities to compete and develop their skills and sustaining their interest.
More opportunities for young people to join clubs and compete in junior sections, this will help raise everyone's performance.

Sports Aid Foundation

The Sports Aid Foundation is an independent charity, which provides financial support for young people with identified sporting potential. The money it distributes is raised from the private sector through donations, promotions and events.

The Sports Aid Foundation works with the ECB to identify suitable applicants to grant aid. The ECB is responsible for the distribution of application forms.

The Cricket Foundation

The Cricket Foundation receives funding of £2.5 millions annually for the development and progress of the game at grassroots level.

Only County Boards are eligible for the annual development funding awards upon submission of applications for a variety of development activities. The award embrace funding towards:

County Development Officer Employment.
County representative age range matches and coaching.
Cricket in schools.
Club development.
Support of individuals on course for coaches, groundsmen, umpires, teaches, administrators, parents, etc.

Provision For Male And Female Competitors

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is formed with the woman’s Cricket Association (WCA) to run the provision for female competitors in cricket. This has strengthened the ECB's strategy to encourage the provision of more facilities, and more playing opportunities for women and girls.

County Boards and County Development Officers are taking the lead in encouraging and promoting women and girls cricket. Some Counties are taking on additional County Development Officers with special responsibility for women’s cricket. For example, the County Development Officer has duties to make sure that the standards of facilities are high and he/she must try to promote women’s cricket and encourage more girls and lady’s to participate.

All these responsibilities and programmes have had an effect on the increase of women's games. There has been an eight per cent rise in the number of clubs, resulting in a 19 per cent rise in the number of women playing cricket since 1998.

The number of primary school girls involved has increased from 354,000 to 433,000 and secondary school figures have increased from 139,000 to 174,400.

There is a strong league structure from county, through regional to the National Premier League with an annual system of promotion and relegation. Some clubs play evening league cricket and others concentrate on weekend fixtures. Also, there are many tournaments for women to enter and more and more sponsors are getting involved with women’s cricket as they are starting to rise and have an excellent market in attracting people.

Men’s cricket is run by the ECB and is helped by additional agencies such as Sport England. Men's cricket is very huge and attracts thousands of people.

Participation in men’s cricket is always increasing because of it wide range of programmes and facilities. There are various leagues attracting boys and men. For example, the Norwich union league attracts kids because it offers them to as ball boys. On the other hand, men are getting the chance to play for their club or county. For boys, there is a borough cup which make it very exciting for them and also there are various tournaments such as the Essex’s cup, the London cup, etc.

Men get a lot of opportunity to play cricket, as there are many clubs in different areas, this makes it very easy to develop your skill because of the wide availability of facilities. Also, there are many tournaments for male competitors to enter and more and more sponsors are getting involved with men’s cricket as they to raise a lot of money and have an excellent market in attracting people.

Provision For Disabled

The ECB's aims is to ensure that people with disabilities in England becomes and remains the successful and respected nation in the world for all forms of cricket for people with disabilities. Disabled people of all ages and all forms of disabilities are encouraged to participate in cricket. Players with disabilities achieve the highest standard of playing excellence that their ability allows them to have. Although, Disabled people are being encouraged to participate in cricket, there is lack of information about the number, ages, gender, and location of disabled people who may play cricket or whom may be interested in playing the game. Also, disabled cricket currently lacks the structure, finance and other resources to achieve with all potential players. Therefore, a 5-year plan has been formed by the ECB. In this plan it includes:

To increase the number of people with disabilities participating in cricket. This objective includes participation as umpires scores, administrators and groundsmen as well as active players.
To improve the skill and standards of all those participating in the game by monitoring performance and identifying talent.
To provide the opportunity for cricketers with disabilities to attain success at all levels up to and including, international competitions by organised programmes of competitive matches, leagues, tournaments, championships, and international matches.
To ensure the provision of appropriate facilities in terms of access, equipment, pitches, and support services to enable the game to be played safely and successfully at all levels and in all forms.

The borough I live in is the Walthamforest borough. It has various clubs and the participation of cricket is very good. There are many clubs which have links to county clubs and allow us (local people) to use their facilities. For example, the Leyton County Cricket Club allows schools within the borough to come and use there facilities which include, cricket nets, balls, bats, pads, bowling machines, etc. Also, many elite performers come in schools to teach and encourage boys and girls to participate in cricket, just as the national strategy proposes. These kids are introduced to schemes such as kwik-cricket and inter-cricket.

Many clubs in this borough give opportunities to go further and progress go a higher stage. For example, a school boy who is very good in cricket will get their name put forward to a club and then on to county trials. Also, access is very good, there are many sports centres such as 'peter may' sports centre which offers us indoor and outdoor cricket nets. Essex County Club has an indoor school with six cricket nets and they have the finest coaches, each coach has a large amount of experience in teaching all ages groups and abilities.

The Walthamforest borough offers many competitions for all ages and sexes. For example, the youngsters have leagues, one-day tournaments, indoor competitions, etc. Many clubs hold under-15, 16, 18, 20, 40, etc, competitions and leagues. So all ages and sexes are given the opportunities to participate in playing cricket.

The grounds in the Walthamforest borough are very good. There are over 12 sports grounds which allow cricket matches to be held and the conditions of the ground are very high. Although there are very good provision for men women, and elite performers, I feel that the provision for disabled participants is very limited. There are only two or three clubs that allow disabled participants to play cricket. However, there is access for disabled participants through private organisations in the borough but the costs are very high.

Overall, the Walthamforest borough provides a lot of opportunities to play cricket and the access of facilities and the opportunities to participate are excellent. However, the provision of disabled cricket is not very good, and their needs to be more opportunities or clubs for involvement in cricket for disabled cricket.

Conclusion

The cricketing schemes and policies of the ECB mean that there is good involvement for girls and boys and that the game is being spread to inner-city areas. The access for facilities is excellent and there is many clubs which means that people can play cricket whenever they like. Also, the points above such as the provision of male and female are excellent and they provide opportunities to play cricket. However, like I stated above, there needs to be more clubs and opportunities for disabled participants.

The funding of cricket is very good. Many additional bodies give money and help with the grassroots development in cricket. The national strategy contributes well to the structure of cricket as it provides a guideline to participants and enables them to progress further.