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Cricket in schools

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
English schools are horribly split into two major camps - the public/independent/fee-paying schools, which run many cricket teams with full facilities and a massively experienced coaching line-up.

Then you have the free/government/state schools, where you're lucky if you actually get any cricket ever, and the experience is often limited at best.

One of my housemates last year was coached at his school (QE College Guernsey) by Jack Birkenshaw (ex-Leics and England), whilst the coaching line-up at my secondary school consisted of the Head of PE, and me.
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
I played school cricket for four years. It was compulsory to play sport for the school on a Saturday, and no matter what standard you were playing on weekends (except state representation) you were forced to play for the school. We used to get Friday afternoons off to play (from Year 10 onwards for me) the first day of the game, and then play all of Saturday as well.

There is a school competition provided for pretty much every school in the state, although competitions vary from 10 over slog-a-thons for the state/goverment schools to the 2 day must-take-10-wickets brand that I was fortunate enough to take part in.
 

roseboy64

Cricket Web Content Updater
Well at my school there's an ex-West Indies player coaching the team. Robert Samuels, he's been there for the last 3 seasons. For the previous two seasons and probably before there was a teacher coaching. It's compulsory to do an extra-curricular activity but not a sport. Under Samuels I think there's been improvements so I guess that was a good decision. He's got some problems but that's ok.
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
Neil Pickup said:
English schools are horribly split into two major camps - the public/independent/fee-paying schools, which run many cricket teams with full facilities and a massively experienced coaching line-up.

Then you have the free/government/state schools, where you're lucky if you actually get any cricket ever, and the experience is often limited at best.

One of my housemates last year was coached at his school (QE College Guernsey) by Jack Birkenshaw (ex-Leics and England), whilst the coaching line-up at my secondary school consisted of the Head of PE, and me.
yeah thats true, luckily i attend public school we have a good cricket programme in our school.
 

cricket player

International Debutant
Thank god I am not living in England Other wise I would have been going to goverment/state schools and no cricket at all,huh?
 

social

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Cricket in state/gov't schools in Aus is less common than once was the case.

Apparently this is because cricket matches are too time consuming and generally require travel away from the school itself.

Sports such as basketball, on the other hand, could potentially be played within the school grounds and take less than an hour to complete.
 

Scallywag

Banned
social said:
Cricket in state/gov't schools in Aus is less common than once was the case.

Apparently this is because cricket matches are too time consuming and generally require travel away from the school itself.

Sports such as basketball, on the other hand, could potentially be played within the school grounds and take less than an hour to complete.
Both my sons have done cricket at school as a subject in high school (year 12 and year 10). Its a private school but cricket is a very popular subject.
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
Scallywag said:
Both my sons have done cricket at school as a subject in high school (year 12 and year 10). Its a private school but cricket is a very popular subject.
What state is that in? :huh: You said its in Year 12 - does that go towards their final HSC/TER score?

And why wasn't it in Victoria? :(
 

kendall

U19 Vice-Captain
We had a successfull side when i played in years 10 and 11 however only 4 people actualy did anything as they batted at the top of the order and bowled which made it very dull but in yout cricket this always happens
 

King_Ponting

International Regular
Yeh scool cricket is a bit like that. When i played for school i opened the batting and bowling...... But the again we only had 5 decent players in our team
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
King_Ponting said:
Yeh scool cricket is a bit like that. When i played for school i opened the batting and bowling...... But the again we only had 5 decent players in our team
Who were they then, batsmen 3, 4 and 5 together with first and second change bowlers?

(walks away, whistling)
 

The Baconator

International Vice-Captain
Cricket at my school isn't really up to much. The facilities aren't that great and we usually play in the gym or the playground. It's pretty much about about teaching people the basics but the people that already know the basics usually end up pretty bored. Luckily for me there's a decent team because there's quite a few good club cricketers in my year.
 

Dasa

International Vice-Captain
vic_orthdox said:
I played school cricket for four years. It was compulsory to play sport for the school on a Saturday, and no matter what standard you were playing on weekends (except state representation) you were forced to play for the school. We used to get Friday afternoons off to play (from Year 10 onwards for me) the first day of the game, and then play all of Saturday as well.
Our system was the same. Which school did you go to, v_o?
 

Top_Cat

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Woodville High here. About a public as it gets, replete with gang fights and the occasional stabbing. We entered a national 50-over knock-out comp every year and got hammered every year (with the saving grace being the magnificent express pace bowling of yours truly :D).

Yup, I only ever played district cricket, really. Certainly wasn't forced to play for school.
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
Top_Cat said:
Woodville High here. About a public as it gets, replete with gang fights and the occasional stabbing. We entered a national 50-over knock-out comp every year and got hammered every year (with the saving grace being the magnificent express pace bowling of yours truly :D).

Yup, I only ever played district cricket, really. Certainly wasn't forced to play for school.
It's interesting. In our school competition, for football there has been a lot of controversy about schools chasing the best players from the representative sides who go to schools that are "less prestigious" and offering them scholarships in big numbers. One school reportedly has about 18 players in their 21 on scholarships. In doing so, they forfeit their ability to play TAC Cup (the state U/18 competition from where all Melbourne teenagers get drafted into a league side) regularly, compromising their chances to make a living out of Australian Rules football.

Yet school cricket has been able to avoid this, because the best players know that they're missing out on District cricket by playing for school and aren't willing to make that sacrifice, so cricket has sort of managed to not get caught up in all that.
 

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