Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Cricket

In early April, the Government announced that £35 million of new funding would be given to grassroots cricket over the next 5 years in the run up to the 2026 and 2030 home World Cups. This is a huge investment for cricket nationally and importantly, it will enable over 900,000 pupils (in state schools) to play cricket at school. 

This announcement is pertinent just months after the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket’s (ICEC) 2023 report which found a myriad of concerns present in cricket from grassroots to professional level.

At The Blue Coat School (BCS), we are incredibly fortunate to have an established, inclusive cricket programme which sees increasing success year-on-year. This was recognised formally by being selected in the top 50 prep schools for cricket by The Cricketer Magazine for the 2023-24 academic year.

Whilst BCS will not directly benefit from the Government’s increase in funding, we are delighted that local schools and the community will benefit from improved infrastructure and participation levels in cricket which will in turn, expand the opportunities available to our pupils for fixtures, cricket festivals and other events.

Female Participation in Cricket

We are incredibly proud of the increase in female participation in cricket at BCS over recent years. This has been a strategic focus to increase girls’ interest and participation in a very male-dominated game. 

BCS moved from rounders to cricket following the Summer 2019 season. Unfortunately, at that time, the other local schools in the area were not willing to switch from rounders to cricket for girls. Even during remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic, we continued to pursue cricket, innovating aiming and bowling drills pupils could do at home. 

Just one example which highlights the success of the cricket programme at BCS is Old Scholar, Indira Singh. Mr Newman, Head of Prep and Second Master, remembers with pride Indira scoring a hat-trick in a boys’ fixture when she was in Year 5 (2018). 

In an interview with Former Bears with Brian Halford, Indira’s father, Anurag Singh who was an exceptionally gifted cricketer himself said: 

‘I didn’t give her any cricket coaching and paid thousands of pounds for tennis lessons but her school started to play cricket and she loves it. The school put her forward for a county trial and she got through.’

Indira has continued to excel in her cricket career and she now plays for Harborne Cricket Club, Warwickshire Bears Girls and Central Sparks Academy. Her sister, Anusha, also an Old Scholar of BCS, followed in her footsteps and is also playing for Harborne Cricket Club and Warwickshire Bears Girls.

This concerted effort has not only increased female participation in and out of school, but it has also reaped success for The Blue Coat School on a national scale with the U11 Girls winning the IAPS Hardball Championships in May 2023.

However, speaking to the national outlook, the ICEC’s most recent report states that: 

‘Women are not even nearly on an equal footing with men within the sport today. Our evidence shows that women continue to be treated as subordinate to men within, and at all levels of, cricket. This is evident both from the lived experience of professional and recreational women cricketers and from the structural barriers that women continue to face.’

In response to the report, the England and Wales Cricket Board have committed to tripling the number of girls’ club teams by 2026. This will hopefully benefit female BCS pupils by making available ample accessible opportunities to continue playing cricket beyond school. There are currently four girls who also play for junior county cricket teams, however, for those girls who enjoy the sport but compete at a lower level, there are very limited opportunities for them.

The Blue Coat School are steadfast in their commitment to providing a level playing field for boys and girls in cricket. There are further advancements to make in achieving equality, such as the number of hardball fixtures. Despite an increase in other schools playing girls’ cricket, there is still difficulty in sourcing an opposition who can field an all female hardball team. In fact, there is currently only one other local independent school who can offer competitive hardball matches at all. As a result, the girls mostly play pairs and hardball against the boys’ teams. 

This academic year, both boys and girls BCS will play an equal amount of cricket fixtures. However, for the girls, the majority of those matches are softball matches against other local independent schools.

The Blue Coat School also works closely with Warwickshire County Cricket Club to provide training facilities for the junior teams. We are delighted that this support extends our ability to promote female participation. In the Summer of 2023, the School hosted five age group fixtures, three of which were for the Under-11 Girls.

Ethnic Diversity in Cricket

Ethnic diversity in cricket is also a concern across all levels of cricket in England. According to Sport England, there has been a 75% decline in Black British players in professional cricket since the 90s. 

In the ICEC’s 317-page report from June 2023, they substantiate a deep-rooted racism in cricket. There is a significant lack of representation for ethnic groups not just in the game itself, but in leadership positions in cricket. Ethnically diverse representation comprises only 5.6% of leadership positions in cricket, compared to the 30-35% of recreational cricket players from ethnically diverse backgrounds. 

We hope that by exposing pupils to many facets of cricket, from playing the sport, to engaging with coaches from different organisations, to cricket experiences at Edgbaston Cricket Stadium, we will enlighten children to the whole host of opportunities cricket could afford them in the future. 

Ethnic diversity is actually even more problematic in the female game, particularly at the domestic competition level. 

As a co-educational school, The Blue Coat School is equal in its intake of males and females and incredibly diverse in relation to pupil ethnicities. As a result of cricket being a mandatory sport for both boys and girls in the Trinity Term, participation in cricket is 100% of pupils in Years 3 to 6. That is 365 children playing cricket every week.