Masters League helps cricket to thrive at Framlingham College

Former Warwickshire man on staff

When considering the cricket programmes delivered by schools across the country, it is easy to be drawn in by the silverware, the history and the former players to roam the grounds and come through the system.

But for many pupils who don't go on to make a career playing the game professionally, or adorn the honours' board, the sport has equal value.

Framlingham College head of cricket Jack Beaumont is keen to look after all students wishing to enjoy the sport, even if they don't necessarily frequent the most competitive sides. To offset a lack of external fixtures for C or D-level players, he set up a Masters League - an in-house Thursday competition.

So successful it has been, there is hope it will attract achools including Eastbourne College, Seaford College and Stamford School to join them.

"We have been trying to find fixtures for our lower level teams," Beaumont told The Cricketer. "We've struggled. 

"We've had some external ones, but we’ve limited on what other schools can offer. We can do it but not a lot of others can. We've created this internal Thursday Masters Leaue where we've come up with some random team names, they all get put into different squads and every Thursday they have a fixture. 

"It will normally be one innings one Thursday, one innings the next. If your team is there you can play, if they've off tough luck wait until next week. 

"It has actually worked really well because it has created a buzz. There has been a leaderboard, players of the week that kind of stuff. It is something we're looking to continue this year."

Fewer than 600 students at the college means Beaumont and his team can adopt a focused approach to the cricket programme, ensuring full exposure to the wealth of knowledge available.

The team includes director of sport Chris Gange, former Italy international Andy Northcote, Rob Earl, who was on staff at Warwickshire, Marcus Marvell, who has played at National Counties level, and another Italian international in Llenia Sims.

"We're not a big school so it means that the actual cricketers we have we can work quite closely with them," explained Beaumont. "Our coaching team are extremely strong, probably on a national scale. I think that stands us out from the rest. 

"It is the same coaches throughout the whole system, from age six to age 18, which allows us to have that continuity the whole way through. 

"In the winter it can be bespoke to those individuals that require it to get to the next level. Same numbers mean a lot more one-to-ones - the first two terms we did 1,000 hours of one-to-ones."