England: Nurturing young talent as a learning process (22 Jul 1998)

22 July 1998

Nurturing young talent as a learning process

By ESCA president Hubert Doggart

THE English Schools Cricket Association are celebrating their 50th anniversary this summer and, since their humble origin, have helped in the development of a host of county and international players.

They were founded after a match between Lancashire Schools and London and Home Counties, in "The Jolly Blacksmith", Twickenham, on May 28, 1948 and by 1969 every county had an affiliated association. A measure of their progress came in 1996 when Humberside's Ken Lake, ESCA's general secretary, organised the Lombard World under-15 Challenge with the final won by India at Lord's.

Schools' coaches and administrators face many problems: the short summer term; the encroachment of examinations; the growth of rival sports; the increased size of schools after reorganisation.

To deal with these difficulties the ESCA have brought in coaching courses, a programme of all-day inter-county matches between the ages of 11 and 19, international matches at under-15 and under-19 level (the latter now in the hands of the England and Wales Cricket Board) and competitions for the 11 to 15 age groups with finals on a Test match ground.

The ESCA have also entered a close partnership with the ECB as part of "The Development of Excellence" programme. The Golden Jubilee year has seen Warwickshire's Leslie Fellows organise the 10th three-day under-14 regional festival at Coventry with the finals earlier this month.

In two finals at Edgbaston, Dale Primary School, from Derbyshire retained their grip on the under-11 Wrigley competition and Edgarley Hall, Millfield's junior school, won the H S Altham under-11 hard-ball competition.

Whitgift College triumphed in the Calypso competition for under-12s and 13s at Headingley and the Lord's Taverners 'Cricketer' Colts Trophy was lifted by the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, at Trent Bridge.

Perhaps the jewel in the crown of the Association's programme is the Bunbury ESCA under-15 festival, comprising three regional matches, followed by games between the President's XI, chosen from independent schools, and ESCA A, and ESCA B versus ESCA under-14s. The first festival was at Lincoln in 1969; this year's, organised by the Berkshire Schools Cricket Association with ESCA's treasurer, Brian Johns involved, is the 12th since Bunbury's arrival.

Bunbury founder David English was able to attract valuable sponsorship when he became involved. He has also designed a fine 50th festival brochure which has contributions from some of the England party chosen for the fourth Test against South Africa, including Alec Stewart, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Mark Ramprakash, Darren Gough, Ian Salisbury and Andrew Flintoff.

This provides fitting evidence that most of England's recent Test players have distinguished themselves in earlier festivals and they are obviously grateful for the opportunities that ESCA gave them.

Wellington College will host the festival but the final two games - on Thursday and Friday, July 30 and 31 - are scheduled for the Reading club grounds.

At the festival dinner, on the Thursday evening, the toast of Cricket will be proposed by Barry Richards and the toast of ESCA by Geoff Miller. Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the ECB, has accepted an invitation to attend.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)