Departing Birchover Park last Sunday, following our disappointing collapse against West Indian Cavaliers in the National Knock Out, many of our dressing room were left scratching their heads trying to work out the best method of playing the devilishly difficult spin of former Pakistan Test ace Saqlain Mushtaq. Saqlain has been kicking about the club circuit now for a couple of years, playing as an amateur of course, his love of the game obviously being the huge pull bringing him into league cricket.
I first came across him playing for my former club Leicester Ivanhoe while Saqlain was turning out for Syston. That match produced one of the best innings from a 16 year old that I have ever seen. Shiv Thakor, now with Leicestershire and England Under 19s, scored a fine 50 to win the game. It was a brilliant innings, not because it was explosive or innovative, but just because he refused to play the script that Saqlain had written. Setting 7-2 leg side fields, Saqlain encouraged Shiv to play against the spin, but time and time again, Thakor just worked the ball with the spin into a gap that Mushtaq had not been able to plug.
Shiv Thakor in action for Leicester - Leicester Mercury (c)
One of the great disappointments from that season was that we could not have Thakor playing more often. Shiv, continues to develop into a fine young cricketer under the tutelage of Trevor Ward at Uppingham School. This means that Shiv, as do many of England’s upcoming young cricketers, hones his talents playing not in Premier League Cricket, but on the school playing fields of the independent education sector. While this was ultimately frustrating from a personal and club point of view, it does beg the question, what form of cricket should our top young players be playing to best develop their talent?
Let us start by looking at the facts. In the current England side (if we remove our two overseas players Pietersen and Trott) 6 of the remaining 9 attended Independent Schools for their education, including all of the batsmen in our top 7. Only Jimmy Anderson (St Theodore’s RC High School), Graham Swann (Sponne School) and Tim Bresnan (Castlefield High School) attend schools in the state sector.
Why does school cricket seem to have the formula for player development? Well firstly there are some obvious advantages. Independent Schools often employ the services of top quality cricket coaches, who work with excellent facilities, indoor and out, for extended periods both in and out of the season. In addition to this, there is a culture where sporting success is treated as almost equal to academic success, so pupils are driven to perform to the highest level possible.
Perhaps more crucially though, players are given the time to develop their skills in match situations. Some schools still operate around two day matches, and if not they certainly play time matches. This enables batsmen to spend time building an innings, being selective with their shots and mastering the skills of constructing and chasing a score. Too often in league cricket, a young player is brought in, bats at seven in the order, and goes in under extreme pressure to score from the off. As a result, a couple of bad innings’ and their confidence can be shot. It can be the same for a bowler. In a school game they might get the chance to bowl their overs, develop strategies for taking wickets and be allowed to make mistakes along the way. In league cricket, you might come on in the 40th over, go for 10 runs in your first over with an incorrect field, and be taken off an over later.
So does league cricket hold any role in developing the international players of tomorrow? Of course it does. How else are the next generation of state school players going to make the international scene otherwise? The ECB and club cricket in general have made great strides in recent years improving the provisions for young players coming into the game. The junior club cricket scene is now much stronger, and the Chance to Shine programme has seen cricket brought into primary schools. However, much still needs to be done. Too much cricket in the secondary state sector is a token gesture. Not enough specialists, not enough facilities and exam pressures mean cricket is done but with a small c. Schools should be talent identifying, and directing young players to clubs where they can develop their talents. In addition, I would also like to see the development of a Sunday U19 league at a club, or cluster club level. These matches could be developed into two day games across two weekends in the middle of the summer where young players can learn to play with more patience (too much of junior cricket is twenty over slap and dash).
So while I can’t wait to see Shiv Thakor pulling on an England Test shirt in a few years’ time (no doubt claiming to the person sat next to him I taught him all he knew) I would love to think that a pupil at my school might have the chance to go and play alongside him too.
It's a nice story to state that the independent sector dominate international cricket (or the England team at least). But the fact that 72% of this England team are privately educated doesn't tell us a great deal. You can't deduce conclusions from a sample size of 11. It'd be much more interesting to know where our 400 first class cricketers were educated. It doesn't matter where you went to school, if you dominate the First Class county scene chances are you will get onto the England radar. Take your chances and you'll play for England. It may be that independently schooled cricketers have a tendency to perform better in first class cricket but that's a pretty hard conclusion to prove. It'd be much easier to prove that they are more likely to make it at the first class level in the first place. I don't know whether they are or not, but it'd be interesting to find out.
ReplyDeleteAgree with your point about about how an u-19s Sunday League could prove beneficial. Sydney has an u-21 premier league that runs alongside their first grade competition and by all accounts provides a good, high quality environment for players who may be playing first grade (and batting down the order as you mention) or who are playing lower down and hoping to breakthrough to nurture their games.
Unfortunately the fact is that the Academy system (undoubtedly a good thing)has such scope and reach that clubs, and schools for that matter, don't see much of their youngsters anymore. Certainly in Nottinghamshire it seems that the development of players is soley in the hands of the county set-up considering the formation of the Academy side. Club and School cricket alike are going to become less and less influential in the growth of future international cricketers as the Micro-management of these potential superstars becomes ever greater from an ever earlier age.
The comment about the academy system producing the stars of tomorrow is correct if it is assumed that those in charge of academies or county age group teams pick the best players in the first place. I have seen players of average ability at 12/13 turn into extremely good players by 17/18.
ReplyDeleteA major problem with my county set-up is that if you enter the system at 10 you are quite likely to still be there at 17 , when there are far better players around. The main reason for this being the idleness of those who make the selections.