Putting cricket back on the curriculum

The Cricketer visits St Joseph's College, Ipswich, to see how their new Durant cricket facilities are helping grow the game at the school

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Despite cricket's huge influence on this summer's sporting headlines, it can sometimes struggle to muscle its way into the school curriculum.

With tennis and athletics offering less time consuming alternatives, schools' cricket could potentially suffer from a lack of investment.

However, this is not the case at St Joseph's College in Ipswich. "We now have an infrastructure in place where we have new facilities to use for cricket," head of cricket at the school, Elliot Tyler, told The Cricketer.

"Cricket is now our main sport throughout the summer. A lot of schools have seen a decline in cricket, especially independent schools, but we feel that with this investment in equipment from Durant Cricket we can turn this decline around.

"We now have a brand new pavilion, scoreboards and a four lane, state-of-the-art, fully enclosed artificial surface and netting to surround it."

Cricket is taking centre stage at the Suffolk school, even though it has historically been renowned for its rugby, producing several professionals such as England's Lewis Ludlam. However, Tyler is hoping that the new cricket facilities can benefit the game.

^{The cricket facility at St Joseph's College, Ipswich}

"We want to increase participation and inspire kids. They will see these amazing facilities and want to use them. It will also increase opportunities for students from surrounding schools, not necessarily independent.

"We have a connection with Hadleigh CC, who use our facilities as well as the Kent county age groups, boys and girls, who come in to train and play. We have many enquiries for next summer already to use our facilities, people are already talking about us.

The college is also hoping to attract more promising young cricketers on scholarships.

"We want to increase the number of cricketers getting access to great facilities and coaching. This can only be a good thing for grassroots cricket."

The college's scholarship programme has enjoyed success in the past. New Zealand bowler Matt Henry (right) was awarded a scholarship to attend the school in the sixth form and has since gone on to play more than 50 times for his country.

Perhaps it is his familiarity with English conditions that has made him such a threat on these shores. He was the leading wicket-taker in the County Championship during the 2018 summer and followed that up with 14 wickets during last summer's World Cup, including the prized scalp of Jason Roy in the final.

St Joseph's are keen to carry on producing cricketers and with such advanced cricketing facilities it will not be long before more alumni break into the first-class game. The school has enlisted former Kent bowler Matt Hunn as their cricket professional and, having enjoyed four years on the county playing staff, he knows what it takes to break into the county circuit.

He will be part of a growing coaching team at St Joseph's that will offer one-on-one coaching sessions throughout the year using their indoor school.

^{St Joseph's College's facility was supplied by Durant Cricket}

"It's going to be a year-round programme where students can train whenever they want," Tyler explained. "This will be particularly good for sixth formers who will have free periods and study time during the week... as long as they are on top of their schoolwork, of course!

"The studies all say how much time should be spent revising and how much time spent playing sport. Of course, most students won't become professionals but they are still learning so much through playing sport and are becoming well-rounded people.

"There is still a lot of work to do. We can't say we're done and now we have to make the programme a success. Getting more students playing cricket is the ultimate aim and these new Durant facilities are certainly helping us do that.

"In the next three or four years I can see us being just as much a cricket school as a rugby school. We want to be an all-round sporting college."

Durant Cricket are specialists in cricket ground equipment. For more information, visit www.durantcricket.co.uk or call 01572 822013