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Learning to Adapt

Exams and club cricket have forced many schools to have a rethink, writes Paul Edwards.

MCC Foundation Hub Day at Lord's

Summer Saturdays stretching deep into golden evenings; printed fixture lists as venerable as The Book of Common Prayer; pitches of first-class standard and players whose names are put down for MCC membership on their 16th birthdays; spacious pavilions, their walls crammed with boards listing the XIs from innocent eras; fathers watching their sons take the field and thinking this game stands for so much more than itself.

Well, yes. Look carefully and you will still observe such scenes in the English season. Independent schools face a range of challenges but many hold fast to their traditions. The great boarding schools, in particular, take advantage of their pupils’ availability to offer coaching throughout a week that may already be packed with academic commitments. Matches against familiar rivals are great occasions. Eton still play Harrow at Lord’s.

But you would be mistaken to imagine that nothing has changed in the private sector. The pressure on pupils to get good grades in GCSEs and A Levels and the desire of the most talented cricketers to play for their clubs on Saturdays have led to changes in the way some masters in charge of cricket run their particular ships. The adjustments have been most noticeable in Headmasters’ Conference (HMC) schools that do not accommodate boarders yet not all the changes have been detrimental to the cricket played in those places.

MCC Foundation Hub Day at Lord's

“The biggest change has been the way in which exams have affected the availability of boys,” reflected Simon Sutcliffe, who has been the master in charge of cricket at Merchant Taylors’, Crosby since 2011. “Increasingly we have public exams before half-term but that’s improved now that most boys in the lower sixth don’t sit any of those. The other change has been the way in which club cricket has impinged on the school game. Merseyside clubs in the Liverpool Competition are increasingly willing to select younger players and we have people getting picked for their club's first team when they are 15 or 16. From their perspective it's better for them to be playing for that first team than for the school, so there is this clash of interests.

"The parents have a lot of influence and it's become increasingly difficult to oblige boys to play. At our place I've given up on that issue and last season we decided we weren't going to play for their clubs but the quid pro quo is that we want them to do the very best they can to be available on Wednesdays. They end up playing 17 or 18 games but none of them on Saturdays. The downside is that I've had to pretty much abandon timed cricket, so we start at 1.30 or 2.00 and play 35- or 40-over games. That is regrettable, I think. On the other hand the boys are playing timed cricket of a good standard in the Competition and the positive impact of a good standard in the Competition and the positive impact that's had on my teams has been remarkable. The boys have become much better players and I've had really good teams over the past couple of years."

One might think it would be difficult to generalise about independent schools. Each of them, after all, makes much of its particular characteristics and regards them as selling points to potential customers. But Sutcliffe's experience is shared by coaches across the country. "Most schools are under pressure from parents and there are those who are prepared to tell me their son isn't playing in a particular week," said David Ward, the former Surrey batsman who is master in charge at Whitgift School, Croydon. "However you approach it, the parents have the final say and it is becoming more difficult. I find my counterparts at other schools have the same problem."

One of the results of these developments is that coaches now meet on a regular basis to discuss on a common approach to the changed circumstances. In the north-west a dozen HMC schools including The Manchester Grammar School and King’s, Chester have set up a merit league in which each school has to play a minimum of six matches with points allocated according to the length of the match. It gives the fixture list an element of competition – some bright spark at the ECB would call it “context” – and it is apparently working well. While both Merchant Taylors’ Boys’ School, Crosby and King’s Chester have opted not to play on Saturdays Merchants have discovered they retained their block fixtures by which all their junior teams played counterparts in another school on a particular day.

MCC Foundation Hub Day at Lord's

MCC Foundation Hub Day at Lord's

MCC Foundation Hub Day at Lord's

The majority of cricketers at independent day schools understand how privileged they are but the pressures have never been greater to balance the enjoyment of those privileges with satisfying a university’s A-Level requirements or fulfilling a county’s desire that its best young talents should play Premier League cricket. So perhaps it is appropriate that the facilities at many independent schools are now also being made available on a limited basis to boys and girls aged 11–15 from the state sector. The scheme by which this is achieved is run by the MCC Foundation which finances the establishment of coaching hubs at independent schools. The school makes its facilities available free of charge during the Lent term and the foundation appoints a hub manager who organises coaching for gifted cricketers from the local area.

The scheme began in 2011 with the establishment of six Hubs. In 2019 over eight times that number will operate at schools such as Charterhouse, Eastbourne College, Oundle, Bradford Grammar School, Dulwich College and Magdalen College School in Oxford. Bolton School operates one of the longest established hubs and Andy Compton, the master in charge of cricket, is well qualified to assess their impact.

“We’ve operated over eight cycles with under 13 and 15 groups and we have taken them at younger ages,” he said. “Our numbers in each group have been in the mid-teens or early 20s, so we must have put 350 to 400 boys through the scheme plus some girls. Virtually all the secondary schools in the area take advantage of it and that’s about 16 schools. We’ve linked up with almost all the 24 clubs in the Bolton area and we’re drawing lads from beyond that. If anyone needs it, I have a couple of coaches who are well known within Bolton clubs but we find most of the boys who are recommended to us already have a connection with clubs. All the same, Bolton is giving an opportunity to boys and girls who wouldn’t get it through their school and wouldn’t get it free in any other context. The school donates its facilities and MCC Foundation funds the coaching. We do get lads coming to us who would not otherwise get coaching of that sort.”

Within the general pattern each hub operates in its own way. While Bolton is rich in cricket clubs, the same cannot be said of Tower Hamlets, where another hub has been set up. In that area of London opportunities are given to

However you approach it, the parents have the final say and it is becoming more difficult. I find my counterparts at other schools have the same problem"

young cricketers whose talent may have been unearthed by the Chance to Shine programme and who are now keen to take the next step. Despite their best efforts, their schools cannot help them, so MCC Foundation’s contribution is particularly valuable. Tower Hamlets may not be typical – perhaps there is no such thing as a typical hub – but its foundation helps to justify the faith of Foundation trustee and former MCC president, Roger Knight, whose vision helped to see the hubs established in the first place.

“Initially it was quite difficult because quite a few young cricketers had never been to clubs and they had no family connection with them,” said Knight. “But the local coaches we use often work at the club as well and there is a natural transition. We’re giving both boys and girls a chance to get into the game properly, which they wouldn’t be able to do unless someone was saying: ‘Look, here’s a club. Why don’t you come along and play in a team here?’ That personal contact is so important.”

The results of all this effort are impressive. In 2017 the Foundation gave access to high-quality coaching to 1,473 cricketers of which 448 went on to play at district, county or borough level. One girl and three boys who attended the hub at Eastbourne were later awarded full sports scholarships at the College. Of course all these cricketers were talented in the first place and had to attend pre-Christmas trials so that their level of ability could be judged. But Knight’s gospel of opportunity has attracted high-profile support. “I would like to see an MCC Foundation hub in every town in the UK,” said Mike Brearley.

If the enthusiasm of those in charge of the hubs is any guide, that day may come. In the meantime those interested in becoming a Friend of MCC Foundation – it costs as little as £25 per year – can email info@mccfoundation.org.uk, or ring 0207 616 8529. “We need to get these youngsters playing,” said Knight. “If they play cricket, they will end up watching the game as well.”

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