Cricket in schools

Cricket skills awareness lesson at Lake Tekapo School.

Cricket player numbers have grown rapidly since 2000 to over 100,000 with half these players participating in school teams. Key to this success in primary/intermediate schools are the MILO Cricket Initiatives.

These initiatives comprise a comprehensive delivery network whose responsibility is to implement a series of exciting programmes, backed by quality resources, into schools and junior clubs.

The delivery network is known as the MILO Summer Squad – a team of cricket development personnel who visit primary and intermediate schools throughout the country.

Their role is to promote cricket and fundamental skills and to encourage boys and girls, and their parents and teachers, to become involved in one of the playing programmes.

For years 1-6 they run Cricket Skills Awareness Lessons for classes which gives youngsters an appreciation of the game of cricket and acts as a ‘taster’ for registration into the Have-A-Go Cricket and Kiwi Cricket programmes.

All children participating in the awareness lessons receive a poster, a puzzle and player cards.
During the 2007-08 season the Summer Squad made 1,172 primary and intermediate school visits and involved 92,708 children in their programmes.

The Have-A-Go Cricket and Kiwi Cricket programmes are foundation skill based initiatives, with the latter also introducing boys and girls to a modified format of the game of cricket.

Both programmes can, and are being run in schools, either mid-week after school, at lunchtimes, or during school time.

They comprise a sequence of planned lessons that make it easy for teachers and parents to run and are fun for boys and girls as they learn the fundamental skills, not just of cricket, but those essential to physical literacy.

Schools who set up such cricket programmes receive a starter kit of Kiwi Cricket gear and parents and teachers keen to be involved are offered training to become Cricket Coaches that allows them to confidently run the programme, even if they have no previous experience in the game.

Coaching courses are run by local Summer Squad personnel and in some schools these have been set up as part of their professional development programme. The courses are free, are not assessed, and take around two hours to complete.

At the end of each course teachers and parents receive a coaching manual, cap and certificate and the school is given a DVD which overviews the programme,  how a centre is set up and run.

Teachers can also access free-of-charge CD-Roms which comprise 30 lessons using ‘Cricket’ as a theme covering all areas of the curriculum. All these lessons can be printed off and used in a unit on ‘Cricket’ or just as one off lessons.

At years 7-8 the Summer Squad have available the NZ Cricket Skills Challenge which offers a full programme that teachers can use in their PE classes to teach small ball fundamental skills.

It is hoped that as a result of participating in the NZ Cricket Skills Challenge that schools will set up boys and girls’ teams to play in either their local competitions and/or enter the National Primary Schools’ Competitions.

The top four boys and top four girls’ teams are funded to attend the two day national finals tournament in Palmerston North in December.

For the first time in 2008-09 several full primary schools are looking at implementing the Cricket Initiatives right across their PE programmes from years 1-8. This is an exciting development for these schools and for cricket.

For further information about the MILO Cricket Initiatives and their associated programmes and resources either go to www.blackcaps.co.nz and click on ‘Development’ or contact your local cricket association.