Cricket invests considerable time, expertise and resources in identifying and developing young players. Understanding how those players are progressing across different ages, skills, coaches and stages of a pathway isn't always straightforward.
Much of what coaches know about players is based on their expert observations and experience. The challenge is capturing and turning those individual observations into consistent evidence that can support player development while also giving those responsible for talent pathways a clearer picture of what is happening across their system.
Bridging that gap is what EquiPlay was designed to do.
Developed from research into equity and talent development, EquiPlay provides coaches with a structured framework for assessing players across the skills that matter, supported by clear descriptors and player feedback.
And something particularly interesting happens when those assessments are brought together.
This season, EquiPlay has already captured more than 2000 structured assessments across 300+ young cricketers completed by 28 coaches within a first-class county talent pathway.
That evidence shows where skills are developing strongly, where gaps may exist, how development changes across age groups and how consistently players are being assessed by different coaches. It can also help organisations explore whether different groups of players are experiencing and progressing through the pathway differently.
In other words, thousands of individual coaching observations can become something much bigger: organisational intelligence about the talent pathway itself.
For players, the aim remains simple - clearer, more meaningful feedback that helps them understand their development.
For coaches, it provides a consistent framework while capturing their professional judgement.
And for cricket organisations, it creates something that has traditionally been difficult to see: an evidence base showing how talent is being assessed and developed across an entire pathway.
Finding talented players matters.
Understanding how we develop talent matters just as much.
Find out more at equiplay.co.uk and what it does here: https://youtu.be/MNnJegdCWy4
You can watch the Wisden Scoop interview with the founder of EquiPlay, Professor Adeela Shafi MBE, on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srJfEkh_gUY.
Photo Credit: Thomas Quinn, amateur photographer, aged 15. West of England Premier League (WEPL1)
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