Cricket in secondary schools gets £90k funding boost

The Gloucestershire Cricket Board will deliver its first

project aimed purely at secondary school pupils after receiving £90,000 funding

from Chance to Shine.

The three-year partnership will allow the GCB to provide

coaching sessions in secondarys across the county in an attempt to get more

children interested in cricket and stop youngsters dropping out of the game.

The scheme will also include arranging competitive matches

between schools and training for teachers.

Gloucestershire cricket development manager Steve Silk said:

"This is the first time that funds have been made available for cricket boards

to work specifically with secondary and special schools.

 "At the moment a lot

of kids enjoy their first taste of cricket at primary school but can be lost to

the game when they go to secondary school. This funding will help us encourage youngsters

to keep playing cricket as well as introducing new people to the game."

Priority schools and age groups to benefit from the funding

will be chosen following an audit into the needs of schools, which is currently

being carried out by GCB staff.

The agreement is

the latest in the board's long-standing partnership with the Cricket Foundation

charity. It's Chance to Shine programme - which is

supported by Brit Insurance - is the biggest grass-roots sport development

programme ever undertaken in Britain. It was launched in 2005 by Governor of

the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King to reverse the decline of cricket in state

schools and has now brought cricket to 1.8 million schoolchildren.

In 2012 the GCB supported the delivery of Chance to

Shine sessions in 119 schools, most of them primaries. More than 30 of these were

new to the scheme. As part of the programme, the schools played 1595 games

internally and externally with 322 new players joining clubs as a result of

Chance to Shine.

Steve said: "There is no school-based scheme anywhere

else in sport that comes close to Chance to Shine. We have been heavily

involved with them for a number of years and over that time thousands of

children have been enthused about cricket and been encouraged to join clubs. We

are confident that this new scheme will bring similar results."

Stuart Priscott, Chance to Shine regional manager for

the south and south west said: "We want to inspire children to choose cricket. This

funding will help create more and better opportunities for young people to play

cricket within secondary schools. It builds on the great work that we and the GCB

have done at primary level. Now we want to extend this to encourage pupils in

secondary schools to play, compete and join local cricket clubs."