The health of state-school cricket has always been a talking point when it comes to the pathway into the professional game, or the recreational game for that matter.

While there has been a renewed focus on breaking down barriers for state-school cricket in recent years, including increased ECB investment in charities like Chance to Shine and the MCC Foundation, a number of state-school academies are also offering opportunities to develop talent.

Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) in Sussex, the state-school partner of Sussex County Cricket Club, is putting those building blocks in place. The Aldridge Cricket Academy was set up by Sir Rod Aldridge, founder and chair of educational charity the Aldridge Foundation. It’s a glowing example of how quality infrastructure can lead to change.

At BACA, young and aspiring cricketers starting secondary school, working towards their GCSEs or in sixth form can combine their academic studies with high-level cricket coaching in exceptional facilities. The school’s website states that “there’s no compromise between academic studies and sporting development; no rush to get from school to training every day; and no school fees”.

Founded in 2019, BACA’s Junior Cricket Academy is based at the Sir Rod Aldridge Cricket Centre at BACA’s Falmer campus, a state-of-the-art facility costing £1.8m that is used by Sussex players of all levels as well as the school’s students. The academy, operating with the straightforward yet inspirational motto ‘believe you can’, mirrors Sussex CCC’s pathway programme, offering students more than four hours of specialist coaching from ECB level three and four coaches per week, one-to-one sessions, strength and conditioning sessions and competitive indoor and outdoor fixtures. Unsurprisingly, the opportunity to combine studies with elite cricket coaching has proven popular.

“Hands down cricket is a selling point,” says BACA principal Jack Davies. “We’ve got students coming from Bognor Regis. We’ve got students coming from Eastbourne, from Horley, and they are seeing it is worth the travel.”

The same is true at Canterbury Academy in Kent, another hub offering state-school students the chance to pursue cricket at private-school level facilities.

“The first eleven were getting a reputation for playing a good fixture list and beating some top private schools and we’d get people joining in the sixth form,” says David Fulton, ex-Kent skipper and now a coach at Canterbury Academy. “They might be elsewhere in the county where the cricket isn’t as strong and think, ‘I can go there and do my A-Levels or my BTECs and I can do cricket as well’.”

Judy Wallis’ Surrey Academic Cricket Scholars (SACS) programme is another example of cricket being embedded into the state education system. It aims to create a structure where any student in Surrey is no more than 45 minutes away from a sixth form site or centre offering cricket as part of its curriculum. The programme will be in 12 schools from September.

When Wallis started the programme at George Abbot School in Guildford, 37 new students joined in two years. Financially, this made a huge impact on the school because, as for every student in the country, the government provides £4,700 worth of funding annually. The SACS programme injected £174,000 into the school across those two years. The schools also benefit academically from the influx of new students.

“The average grade of a cricket student at BACA last year was a grade seven,” explains Davies. “An average grade of a ‘normal’ student was a 4.5. If you look at a Year 12 student of cricket at this school, they have 100 per cent completion in all homework. They have 100 per cent completion in all work settings because there is that carrot there. They have so much aspiration and are constantly being pushed. And then that mirrors to other students and that aspiration becomes replicated.”

The time and funding that have gone into these programmes are also producing results on a cricketing level. Kent all-rounder Jaydn Denly, nephew of Joe, is a product of Canterbury Academy, while 17-year-old BACA student Ollie Moore was called up to Sussex’s first-team squad for their Rothesay County Championship match against Nottinghamshire in April.

“A few years ago, I wasn’t in the kind of set-up that would get me where I am today,” says Moore. “But once I chose to come to BACA, put the hard work in, took advantage of the training, and made the most of the opportunities on offer, including overseas cricket tours, then I’ve found myself exactly where I’d always hoped to be.”

Head of talent pathway at Sussex, Keith Greenfield, adds: “Ollie has worked incredibly hard over the last seven months and is a very driven individual who has made significant leaps forward in his skill levels – he holds his own in and around our pro set-up.

“This is without doubt because of the amount of quality contact time we have been able to have with him as part of the cricket partnership we have with our state-school partner BACA. It has enabled him to forge ahead of some other cricketers within the Academy group.”

Another BACA student was let go from Sussex’s talent pathway in Year 11 prior to joining the school. One year later, he was back on it. Would he have made it back without the BACA programme? “No,” he replies.

Aspiring cricketers who are unable to afford private school and the cricket coaching and provisions that come with it still getting an opportunity to benefit from high-level coaching and facilities is nothing new – scholarships have existed for years, acting as a golden ticket to the professional game in many cases. However, while cricketing scholarships serve their purpose, there are only so many to go round.

Programmes such as BACA, Canterbury Academy and SACS make access to the top level of the game so much more achievable.

Parental approval

A letter from a parent of a child from Horley who joined the BACA cricket programme

Good morning Mr Davies,

My son, XX, only joined the school in September as part of the cricket pathway. It was a huge decision and one we didn’t make lightly as [it is] a long, daily commute for a 12-year-old!

Since starting at BACA, XX is a different boy. He is a happier child and comes home with eagerness and wants to share how his day has been. This wasn’t the case at his previous school. His ability in maths is now unrecognisable and similarly in science.

Please share my thanks, gratitude and huge appreciation to your team, as I know you don’t have an easy job. I feel completely reassured that he’s in good hands and you are helping him to be the best version of himself.

Kindest regards,
A very grateful mum!