The charity getting state school kids into cricket

An 11-year-old girl has become the eighth-millionth child to take part in a charity programme to get state school children into cricket.

Chance to Shine celebrated the milestone alongside Ava, the pupil in question, during a visit to her school, John Henry Newman Academy in Oxford, this week.

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To mark the occasion, the school had a cricket takeover including special PE lessons and a visit from up-and-coming English fast bowler Sonny Baker.

Baker, who plays for Hampshire in the County Championship, said: "I just love the energy they [the kids] bring - they're all so excited to be here."

"It's been great fun and just reminds you why you play the game and why you originally got into cricket - just to have fun and enjoy it with your mates," he said.

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Baker explained that it had been at state school where he was encouraged to try cricket, before playing competitively for the first time in a Chance to Shine tournament.

"My first cricket coaches were my maths teachers and I thought maths was going to be more my cup of tea," he said.

"But they got me into cricket originally and that's where it all started - so who knows what might have happened."

Also visiting the school was local MP Dame Anneliese Dodds said: "I think it's really important that all children and young people have got access to sport."

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"What everyone can understand is the joy of cricket, the fun you can have and the fact that everyone can have a go - it really is a sport for everyone," she said.

"Quite often children might not be seeing cricket in the way that they might see football for example on the tv - so let's hope that they are inspired and that they can keep going and enjoying cricket in the future."

Chance to Shine was first established in 2005, and is supported by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

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It now delivers free cricket sessions in one in four state schools across the two nations.

A 2023 report found that reported elitism and class-based discrimination in cricket was partly down to a lack of access to the sport in state schools.

It found that 58% of men to play for England in 2021 were privately educated, significantly higher than the 7% of the general population who went to private school.

Kate Stevens, the charity's chief executive, said: "We were set up 21 years ago to allow children to really have a great first experience of cricket at a time when there wasn't much cricket in state schools."

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She said she was "really proud" that the programme was now widespread and gave children a "sense of what it is to play cricket".

"Lots of people might think cricket's quite complicated, but actually it's a game of teamwork, it's a game of fun, it's a game of strategy and it's a game of resilience."

Of the eight million children to take part in Chance to Shine sessions, Stevens said half had been girls - meaning "girls have really had access to cricket in a way that just wasn't there 20 years ago".

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