The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has today announced the national launch of two major new initiatives designed to expand opportunities for young people to play cricket in state secondary schools across England and Wales.
Following a successful pilot programme during the 2025/26 academic year, the ECB has formally launched Cricket For Teachers and Secondary Countdown Cricket, with funding for every Recreational Cricket Board across England and Wales to offer both initiatives to state secondary schools in their area.
The initiatives
Cricket For Teachers is a free teacher training programme designed to give PE teachers the confidence, skills and knowledge to deliver quality cricket sessions for students of all abilities, regardless of facilities, experience or previous engagement with the sport. Participating schools receive training, resources, equipment and ongoing support to help establish a sustainable cricket culture at the school.
Alongside the training programme, Secondary Countdown Cricket is a new mass-participation soft ball competition for students aged 11 to 16. Fast-paced, inclusive and adaptable, the format can be played indoors or outdoors and is designed to provide a fun introduction to competitive cricket for young people of all abilities.
Funding will provide schools with training, equipment, resources and competitive playing opportunities designed to make cricket more accessible than ever before.
The scale
By providing soft ball cricket, the aim is to maximise the number of young people, of all abilities, introduced to cricket. Together, the initiatives are expected to provide cricket opportunities for more than 1.5 million children in secondary schools by the end of 2028.
The ECB aims to support 650 secondary schools each year, across the next two academic years. This will take the total number of schools receiving support, including last year’s pilot, to more than 1,700, through the training of more than 3,500 teachers.
By the end of 2028, it is anticipated that this funding, of c. £1.5m, will mean more than 50% of the 3,400 state secondary schools will have had access to trained staff, equipment, teaching resources and a range of competition offers.
The programmes also support the ECB and Lord's Taverners' shared ambition to ensure every SEND and ALN school in England and Wales has the opportunity to play cricket by the end of 2028. As part of Cricket For Teachers, schools receive specially adapted inclusive equipment designed to support a wide range of needs and abilities, including adapted catching, throwing and batting equipment.
These initiatives are designed to sit alongside, and complement, a wider range of existing state school cricket opportunities, including the Knight-Stokes Cup national hard-ball competition, Chance to Compete soft ball cricket, local competitions delivered by Recreational Cricket Boards and specialist programmes delivered in partnership with organisations including Chance to Shine, the Lord's Taverners and the MCC Foundation.
Teachers across England and Wales have helped to design the new initiatives
The initiatives have been developed following extensive consultation, research and pilot delivery. Through its State School Action Plan work, the ECB identified a number of barriers preventing more cricket being played in state schools, including limited facilities, lack of equipment, insufficient confidence among teachers to deliver cricket and inconsistent access to meaningful competition opportunities.
The pilot programme demonstrated both the demand for cricket in schools and the effectiveness of the new approach. More than 700 teachers from over 425 schools have already completed Cricket For Teachers training, representing more than 10% of state secondary schools across England and Wales.
The full launch marks a significant milestone in the delivery of the ECB's State School Action Plan, published in 2024, which set out ambitious plans to increase participation, improve access to opportunities and better support talent within state school cricket. The Action Plan committed to supporting and training hundreds of teachers to deliver inclusive cricket in state secondary schools, alongside reviewing and strengthening competition opportunities for young people.
Richard Thompson, ECB Chair, said: "When we launched the State School Action Plan, we made a commitment to create more opportunities for young people from every background to experience cricket. Today's launch is an important step in delivering that commitment.
"State schools educate the vast majority of young people in England and Wales, so if we are serious about making cricket the most inclusive team sport in the country, we must ensure those schools have the support they need. Cricket For Teachers and Secondary Countdown Cricket will help remove barriers, build confidence among teachers and give hundreds of thousands more young people the opportunity to enjoy everything our sport has to offer."
Leshia Hawkins, Managing Director of the Recreational Game at the ECB, said: "One of the clearest commitments in our State School Action Plan was to provide better support for teachers and create competition opportunities that work for modern state schools. These two programmes deliver exactly that.
"We've listened carefully to the experiences of schools, piloted both initiatives extensively with Recreational Cricket Boards, and built an offer that is practical, inclusive and sustainable. Whether a school has extensive facilities or a small indoor space, Secondary Countdown Cricket and Cricket For Teachers give staff the tools, confidence and resources to put cricket at the heart of school sport.
"We are delighted to launch these programmes nationally and take another important step towards our ambition of creating opportunities in more than half of all state secondary schools, and every SEND and ALN school, by the end of 2028."
Chris Woakes, former England Men’s player, said: "I was fortunate enough to discover my love of cricket through opportunities at school and in my local community, and I know how important those experiences can be for young people.
"These programmes will help introduce cricket to many more children who may never have picked up a bat and ball before. The more opportunities we can provide in state schools, the stronger and more inclusive the future of our game will be."