How do we make cricket representative and fair? What happens at your school?

[Placido]

Just that really. I am sat listening to Azeem Rafiq talk to MP's in horror. I have a DD who loves cricket and am glad that she was born when she was, not thirty years ago when it would hardly have been encouraged for girls and she might have been teased for enjoying a 'boys' sport. But if sounds like the game of cricket is still not accepting people of colour without commenting/discrimination based on their ethnicity, how can that be in 2021 with such talented players? The All Stars program seems to have done good things for grass roots, but is this still a sport that favours white middle class children who attend private schools? Interested to know people's experiences with this sport in their DC's schools.

Racism has no place in any sport full stop. The Yorkshire stories are disgraceful.

Not sure about tokenistic diversity efforts though? Every player is welcomed irrespective of their background in the cricket teams my sons have played in. Is that token? Unless I've misunderstood your comment.

@jjj321

Racism has no place in any sport full stop. The Yorkshire stories are disgraceful.

Not sure about tokenistic diversity efforts though? Every player is welcomed irrespective of their background in the cricket teams my sons have played in. Is that token? Unless I've misunderstood your comment.

I do not doubt the coaches at those clubs are nice - but the programmes are tokenistic if the same people funding them are not dealing with actual reported racism.

Definition of tokenism = actions that are the result of pretending to give advantage to those groups in society who are often treated unfairly, in order to give the appearance of fairness

Invest in diversity programmes, look inclusive, keep on being racist at the higher level.

I'd agree with needing family members who will put the hours in with you. There's a LOT of sibling pairs in top levels of cricket - see also tennis.

Our experience was that the sports provision at state primary was very poor. 2 hr per week with PE teacher and 1 hr per week with class teacher. Mostly 'gymnastics', dance etc. One hour per week after school football for all ages reception to year 6. No girls attend.
Both children now at private prep. 1 hour per day sports (football/ hockey / cricket etc) plus after school sports clubs. Specialist coaches for all the sports.
You can't compare the two systems. It is no wonder sport is dominated by private schools - you don't need a PhD to work that out.
A friend of mine's DD attends local state school and she has 2 sports lessons a week one of which is theory. WTF. After school sports provision is very poor.
Other state schools are better I'm sure but this is what is on offer where we live...

Sorry I meant 1 hr per week with pe teacher not 2..

@MrPickles73 and I am sure you can see how wrong this is for the children at these schools and for the success of sport in our country - we need the talented from all walks of life not the privileged in our top teams and we need them to feel safe and respected in the process. What would you suggest is done to change this skewing? All private school facilities available for state schools and clubs on a weekly basis? Mixed sports teaching from both sectors on private school facilities during school day?

@Placido I'd suggest the state school day is made longer and an hour of PE is done every day. Hey presto. Our state school has facilities - swimming pool, squash court, astro turf etc but just doesn't use them. It has 2 sports teachers who parents describe as useless.. the private schools where we live don't have better facilities but the children have a 1.5hr longer day and the PE teachers are much better.
State school 40mins away has amazing facilities and great teachers and lays on loads of extra curricular clubs so it is possible.
Trying to mix classes would be a time tabling nightmare and you'd waste time on transport.
Both our kids are county players and I was surprised at the cost. I'd say it's not accessible as you already need to have joined a club. Matches are literally in the next county and as often as not on a work day which requires a day off. County cricket organisations need to raise the money elsewhere and make the training cheaper. Matches on weekends please ! The teams are dominated by private school pupils but this is because our local primary and state schools don't play cricket . The local club struggles to find juniors.
It's very sad but I think state school PE in most schools needs a rocket up it's arse.

Spend the money that's being blown on covid testing and track and trace on school PE instead and hey presto!

Our (state) Primary is very close to a Private 3-18 school. They send specialist Rugby coaches over for a few hours every week. But each class only gets half a term of having PE with the specialists. It was the Private school staff that came up with the idea.

I think that's another thing that boosts Oruvate school sport... the younger pupils have access to the sports facilities of the senior part of the school. They have Rugby pitches, cricket nets, a swimming pool, proper tennis courts etc. The state primary has a field and a playground.

Agree with rocket up arse and more funding. Sadly our local private is full of averagely sporty children with horrendous parents who are reliving their own ambitions through their children, it’s really quite icky. One cross country event we did there was a girl who had clearly hurt her leg and had slowed to a wobble and her mum on the side line shouting ‘come on Portia do it for mummy’. The private school that does have good sports players is an hour away on the bus and wouldn’t want a 2 hour journey for my gang when they can do pretty decent sports clubs at their comps and very decent local clubs.

The racism seems to be at Headingly which is in an area of high Asian immigration - I wondered if the racism was eg in schools and the racist cricketers just saw it as norm. As they always saw it around them. No one else has raised this on the radio progs I've listened to.

My dd made it all the way from club to England level. I can't speak for her England experience as we weren't hanging about for their training weekends, but I never had the impression there were that kinds of issues at neither club nor county. There were both Asian and black girls, and some of her best coaches were black and Asian. I am pretty chocked to hear these revelations, because it is very far from my impression. But I can't say if the women's girls' side of things is different, or our geographical area. Or even whether I just didn't see. I hope not!

@NewLaptop

My dd made it all the way from club to England level. I can't speak for her England experience as we weren't hanging about for their training weekends, but I never had the impression there were that kinds of issues at neither club nor county. There were both Asian and black girls, and some of her best coaches were black and Asian. I am pretty chocked to hear these revelations, because it is very far from my impression. But I can't say if the women's girls' side of things is different, or our geographical area. Or even whether I just didn't see. I hope not!

Agree totally. Well done to you DD first of all though. As you say at county level many girls are Asian and are some of the very best in the side. And one of my DD's county coaches is black. We really genuinely don't see any of these issues. In terms of the private schools sport I do agree. Our DD is at private school. They don't have great cricket - although they have some, but they have a lot of sport in general. I would say that for cricket whether private or state you mostly need incredibly dedicated parents that have time and money on their hands. Our DD joined a club at 7 and we must have driven thousands of miles and dedicated many many hours and days. Yes, there are full and busy cricket clubs in the areas we have lived (London and South East) but the effort put in by parents, and the disruption to the rest of the family is huge. At the moment, for example, she has specialist county coaching every Saturday night between 6-8pm an hour away from where we live. Many of the girls/boys that fall away from clubs is maybe sometimes due to the commitment required rather than the schools they attend?? Although, in part, I realise that the commitment required is more likely possible with the more time and money you would probably have if your child attends a private school.

I would agree with @coroico97 parental dedication is probably a bigger factor than private / state. Our county training also happens on Sundays an hour from where we live and in different locations at different times for each child . It's an endurance test.

@Coroico97 So would you say that a child needs to be from a wealthy background with at least one parent not working full time to even stand a chance of making it through the ranks? That seems very sad in 2021.

@MrPickles73 So as well as paying for county training there are big fuel costs? And time given during the week when many parents would be working. Doesn't seem like a system that can in any way put forward talent from more deprived areas. Seems like a very middle class system to me. So talent is being missed.

So as well as paying for county training there are big fuel costs? And time given during the week when many parents would be working. Doesn't seem like a system that can in any way put forward talent from more deprived areas. Seems like a very middle class system to me. So talent is being missed.

This is not unique to cricket though. My son is a swimmer and it takes a huge amount of time and money to compete in even at a quite low level.

Yes I would agree with both of those things unfortunately @Placido. I do think that the county does its best. Much of the coaching is reasonably priced and as you get more senior, free, but yes, time and money is required I would say. But would that not be the case for many sports if you want to climb the ranks? You have to get to places and dedicate a huge amount of time for matches, training and travel. I remember reading somewhere that Raheem Stirling's 17 year old sister (I think) took him to training on three different buses every day to get to training when he was a child while his mum worked. They didn't have money but someone in the family was able to give a massive amount of time and effort to help him. I agree that in many families that would just not be possible.

You are right, so sad though - imagine how great our sport would be if there was equal access to sport. I was educated at Millfiled and even back then I could see that the amazing facilities were wasted on some fairly average children because they had wealthy families. There were a few stand out children of course, but most were pretty untalented and haven’t gone on to do anything in sporting world as adults. Imagine if those places had been filled with genuinely talented children who made the most of those fabulous facilities. I am not much of a socialist until it comes to education and children which I am passionate about, and I get caught up in idealistic dreams about how great our country could be if we had the most talented doctors/sports people etc not those who had wealthier parents. Hey ho.

I think it's the same for all sports, music, art etc. It's not unique to cricket.
People say oh wow X is so good for his age but tbh if they had driven y to all the sports for the last umpteen years they would be better too. That's why quality of sports, arts, music etc at school is really important where it is accessible for all.

@MrPickles73 But it isn't accessible for all because the tory govt keeps slashing funding for schools which means there is less pe/art/music. Those with the kind of jobs that can afford to pay for private school fees keep voting for them so they don't have to pay more tax or VAT on fees. Those with other jobs, like for eg my friend who is a paediatric nurse at a childrens' hospital, jobs that are really essential to the social fabric of our country, can't afford fees for their children (none of this nonsense please about 'sacrifices', many of the people with these jobs can hardly pay their household bills and don't have financial propping up from family) and see their childrens' education suffer from lack of arts/sports/music. Where is the accessibility you speak of then? How fair is this?

No I'm saying it's important. I'm not saying it exists.
As stated above I'd rather spend money on education than covid test and trace etc.
I think you got the wrong end of the stick.

@MrPickles73 Ah I see sorry I misunderstood. So will you be voting for better funded state education next time?

@Placido - I think you can succeed at the top level without having money but in place of that you have to be incredibly dedicated and disciplined AND have parents/family who are the same (see Raheem Sterling example above). There are big wealthy public schools that give out full bursaries for supremely talented and driven individuals but you have to work incredibly hard to get them. Have you read Judy Murray's autobiography? Or Andre Agassi's? The dedication of the parents and coaches equalled the talent of the child/ren and was frankly terrifying. Most parents would not drive in a knackered old van across Europe on a shoestring to get their child to a tournament!
Also - in my experience - the coaches and clubs (and schools) WANT to help someone with talent. They'd much rather coach them than the Portias with medium talent and scary mothers. When she was much younger our DD's club team qualified for a national final. We drove most of the way up the country to get her there and back. We were surprised to receive our petrol money reimbursed (can't remember if from the club or the ECB).

@Hellocatshome

So as well as paying for county training there are big fuel costs? And time given during the week when many parents would be working. Doesn't seem like a system that can in any way put forward talent from more deprived areas. Seems like a very middle class system to me. So talent is being missed.

This is not unique to cricket though. My son is a swimmer and it takes a huge amount of time and money to compete in even at a quite low level.

Agreed. ANY sport at elite level requires supportive parents who can spare the time and have the means to travel. Girls cricket, I'd even say, is at the 'easier' end of that. Swimming is a different level.