Changes to Junior Formats of Cricket Set to Enhance Experience

This season, junior cricket at your local club and school may look slightly different.

To ensure that children have a great experience of playing cricket, ECB has spent the last three years engaging in extensive research looking at how to help boys and girls develop skills that will stay with them for life, alongside ensuring that they have fun while playing.

This has led to new recommended Junior Formats intended to support children developing at their own pace, in games and activities best suited to their age and ability.

The aims of formats are to:

- Help children to enjoy a great experience of cricket

- Help cricket thrive in clubs and schools by growing the number of children and young people playing the game

- Give children (and their parents) confidence that they are playing the appropriate formats which will help them develop their cricketing skills

To achieve this, we’ve made a set of recommendations, including some important changes:

- Fewer players per team allowing players to be more actively involved

- Appropriate length pitches

- Small boundaries

- Shorter matches

Talking about the formats, Nick Pryde, ECB Interim Director of Participation & Growth said:

“Last year, more than 59,000 children had a great first experience of our game through All Stars Cricket. It is vital that we follow that by continuing to make the game inclusive, fun, and action-packed. We want young people to continue to improve their cricketing skills and, just as importantly, have fun. As the recent findings of the Sport England Active Lives Children & Young People Survey showed, enjoyment is the main driver of participation and the new junior formats are based on that principle.”

Clare Connor, Managing Director, Women’s Cricket said:

“The proposed changes to pitch lengths and formats are the product of research and trialling conducted by the ECB with the game over the past three years. Crucially, the most exciting feedback has come from the players themselves who have reported that the new formats increased their enjoyment levels – they had more fun, they felt more included as they were more involved in more of the action, and they felt more confident. As an added bonus, we have seen evidence of improvements in players’ skill development with bat and ball.”

The new Junior Formats recommendations can be found here.

They are the next step in developing the junior pathway for boys and girls, part of the new game-wide strategy from 2020-2024, Inspiring Generations. This includes introducing children and young people to the game, providing funds for clubs to invest in family friendly facilities and providing volunteer opportunities for young people.

ENDS

For all media enquires please contact Jo.Pockett@ecb.co.uk