COVERED 2025 Spring

COVERED 36 TRENTBRIDGE.CO.UK “ONE OF THE KEY THINGS IS APPROPRIATE CRICKET FOR ALL. BECAUSE WE’VE BROUGHT THE COUNTY ALL TOGETHER, WE’RE ACTUALLY ABLE TO FACILITATE CRICKET THAT IS APPROPRIATE FOR EVERY LEVEL OF THE GAME.” Ben Thompson “The history of cricket in Nottingham- shire is very strong, and we haven’t got a problem with producing lots of good young cricketers,” he says. “But I think everyone in the county recognised that the volunteer base was dwindling, as it is across all grassroots sports. “We needed to just focus on how we could do things better and more effi- ciently, and ultimately work towards growing cricket across the county together. “Cricket in general is a sport in good health. Participation in junior cricket is up, andT20 cricket andThe Hundred have really helped improve visibility – particularly on the girls’ side, which is a huge growth area. “If we can harness that interest in the right way, things can only continue to go in the right direction.” At the heart of the new structure is a focus on a more tailored offering, adjusted for ability, to stop players falling out of the game when progress- ing through the age groups. “One of the key things is making sure we can offer appropriate cricket for all,” continues Ben. “Because we’ve brought the county all together, we’re actually able to facilitate cricket that is appropriate for every level of the game.” Sam Johnson, one of Nottinghamshire’s Club and League Officers, warms to the theme. “We work closely with the ECB on the delivery of their national programmes (All Stars, for 5-8-year-olds, and Dynamos, for 8-11-year-olds), and we noticed quite significant drop-off rates when children finished Dynamos age and wouldn’t have an appropriate offer for them to continue playing,” he says. “If kids have only been playing cricket for one or two years before they finish Dynamos, then they’re thrown straight into an U11s game with a hardball, playing 20 overs per side, it can be a pretty lonely evening. “We see the same thing after under 15s, when young people are at GCSE age and have a lot of competing interests outside of playing cricket – so at both ages, we want to offer something to keep people in the game and allow them to grow and develop at their own pace. “That’s meant introducing things like an U17s Hundred competition, which has all the same pizzazz as the U19s Hundred that we already run – the coloured kits and pink balls – but provides a bridge for those teams that enjoy playing together but haven’t currently got anywhere to go.” Ben continues: “when we think about junior cricket, the first thing you think is hardball games, eleven-a-side. But if you look at the formats that are out there, that’s actually only a very small part of what’s happening.There are a lot of incrediball (a hybrid ball) games and eight-a-side matches taking place, for example. “We’ve got to provide a pathway from the very start of a cricketing journey all the way into adult or representative cricket – and make sure people aren’t overawed by the equipment or the rules of the game. “Moving to a countywide structure will mean that – where we might have strug- gled to run certain programmes before because there were only two or three teams in the area, now we might be able to find ten teams across a wider area. “From an innovation point of view, we might not run fixtures in the way we always have – at evenings or weekends – we might find that some formats work better in a festival-type environment.