We know how important it is for young people to be active. Sport and exercise bring numerous physical and mental benefits and cricket also provides a social setting for children to develop life skills which will stay with them forever.
We also know, that for some children, getting access to cricket is more difficult. Research shows that people in under-served lower socio-economic groups (LSEGs) are the least likely to be active. And at school, disabled children are less likely to take part, and less likely to enjoy being active as well.
Free school meal eligibility continues to increase. Between January 2020 and January 2022, students eligible for free school meals grew by 456,661 – a 32% increase. Another way of thinking about this is that the number of students eligible for free school meals has increased by 32% since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. This number is only going to increase as families cope with the rising cost of living.
Just under 1.9 million children in England now receive free school meals and there are 1.5 million children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England and Wales.
One of the challenges we’re trying to overcome at the moment is simply to remove the barriers to cricket.
For children living with a disability, or from a less-affluent family, the sport they play in school is fundamental.
That is why this school year will see our organisations focus our efforts, taking cricket directly to both boys and girls who are at the greatest risk of missing out on playing the game. This targeted investment by the ECB, delivered by Chance to Shine and Lord’s Taverners, will mean more than 55,000 extra children will play cricket during this school year.
We’re working with hundreds of new schools, schools we’ve never worked with before, who have less opportunity to play cricket.
We mapped the those areas that don’t have an affordable or free cricket offer outside of school, and we looked at government data on free school meals. We’re choosing schools where 40% or more of their pupils are receiving free school meals.
There are 1,500 SEND schools in England and Wales, and our ambition is to reach all 1,500 of those. It is a fantastic opportunity of all those schools but also all those young people living with a disability. A sport like cricket should have that level of ambition.
What’s really important is that the programmes are designed in such a way that they meet the needs and demands of those young people. We have to place the young person, each and every individual one at the centre of our thinking here.
These programmes will be completely free of charge, delivered as part of the school day so that no additional transport or parental support is required, and every session will be provided by a qualified coach, alongside all the necessary equipment.
We want to make cricket the most inclusive sport, and this barrier-free offer gives children a great opportunity to pick up a bat and ball when they might otherwise miss out.
Hopefully if children love their experience of cricket in schools, they can go and play cricket in their community.
Through our existing work, we draw on our whole cricket network to support us. Over £4m per year of ECB funding is spent on the delivery of school cricket across 7,500 schools and 670,000 children.
Between our organisations, we work with every County Cricket Board and hundreds of coaches, and through our partnerships, we’re able to run free cricket clubs in communities all year round, including, this year, 100 additional Chance to Shine Street projects, funded by the ECB to take cricket beyond schools.
We want to make cricket the most accessible sport for young people from underserved communities, and for those with special educational needs and disabilities.
Longer-term we want to take cricket into hundreds more schools - targeting this work where it is needed most.
By working together, our three organisations will drive schools cricket initiatives at a greater rate, scale, and impact than ever before.
Signed
Clare Connor, Interim CEO, ECB
Vanessa Greene, interim CEO, Chance to Shine
Mark Curtin, CEO, Lord’s Taverners