Last November, cricket coaches working for former England cricketer, Kevin Pietersen, ran a ten-day programme for disadvantaged children from seven countries, at Pietersen’s Academy in Dubai. Pietersen turned up for the last three days to speak to and coach the teenagers from Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Dubai itself. The kids played cricket, trained and did some fitness. But they also learnt about how the sport might help them lead better, happier, and more fulfilling lives.
Pietersen himself is keen on this. “From cricket I’ve learnt discipline, work ethic and also made some good friends and learnt about other cultures,” he says. “If you watch top cricketers go about their business, you’ll see determination, mental strength, creativity, positive thinking.” Increasingly, all over the world high profile cricketers use their sport to provide opportunities for disadvantaged youngsters. Sri Lankan greats Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayewardene support the Foundation for Goodness, which also sent a team to Pietersen’s event. The Foundation uses cricket to help people in northern and eastern parts of the country; areas devastated by the Civil War, and also in the southernmost part of Sri Lanka, which was of course stricken by the December 2004 Tsunami.
West Indian superstar Chris Gayle, and a UK Cricket Charity, Cricket 4 Change, run projects for disadvantaged youngsters in Croydon, and in Kingston, Jamaica. The Courtney Walsh Foundation, overseen by the great former West Indian fast bowler, uses cricket to help young Jamaicans in prisons and young offenders’ institutes.
Causes and effects
The stars don’t run things themselves; there are staff for that. But they do show up from time to time, to meet the beneficiaries. What is more important about such ventures is what the young people who come along actually learn – because what they take away with them could be equally relevant to schools. As Danny Baker, a cricket coach, and former project worker with the Chris Gayle Academy says, “You can use what happens in the games to show young people the consequences of their actions, and how what they do affects others.”
Baker remembers a session where one of the youngsters had just bludgeoned a huge, Gayle- like six to rapturous applause from his team mates. Next ball, the bowler got his revenge, flattening the stumps, after a more ambitious and much wilder, swing from the batter.
Baker stopped the game. Yes, to tell the batter about keeping his head still or hitting through the line. But also because the youngster had thrown his bat down in a fit of temper, turning it into a 2 1/2 pound wooden missile.
Baker fired off some questions, not just at the petulant youngster, but at the group. Why did he try to smash the second ball, straight after the first had gone for six? Ego? Adrenaline? Was it the right ball to hit? Was it a good choice? If it was the right choice, did he execute his skills as well as he could have? Did he have a plan? Did the team have a plan? What was he trying to achieve in terms of his own score and the team’s score? Did he think beyond the now-moment rush of trying to clear the fence?
Self-awareness, motivation, target setting, consequences of actions, responsibility; these are concepts that children and young people need not just in sport, but to live happy and successful lives. “Making good decisions can help people avoid stressful situations,” Baker says. For the wanabee Chris Gayle, if you don’t want the disappointment of being out, pick the right ball to try and hit for six.
Life learning
All team games teach fair play, cooperation and mutual respect; but it seems that cricket has unique characteristics ideally suited to helping youngsters develop other life skills and coping strategies.
“For a start, cricket’s non-contact so there’s far less scope for confrontational behaviour than in more physical games like football,” says PE teacher, Raoul D’Monte, from the Phil Edwards Pupil Referral Unit in Croydon. D’Monte explains that there are more natural breaks in a game of cricket which means more time for informal mentoring, both from staff and peer to peer.
He adds that youngsters with emotional and/ or behavioural difficulties often work better within a structured environment. Cricket has a clearly defined set of rule and roles, and people know when it’s their turn to bat or bowl. When interactions are more open ended, towards ambiguous long term goals – as they are in invasion games like football or basketball – kids with these sorts of issues can get frustrated and lose their temper.
Andy Sellins, Cricket 4 Change’s CEO, explains that taking turns at being captain helps young people think about others and take ownership of the game itself. They can organise the batting and bowling order place the field and take responsibility for encouraging their team mates. “They also learn that for the game to run smoothly each person has to take turns and act in a reasonable way towards one another,” Sellins says.
The long game
Young people can learn just as much about life by watching those who play cricket at the highest level, as by playing it themselves. Richard Doughty, a former Gloucestershire cricketer, turned counsellor, analyses the way top cricketers play the game in conversations with some of the young people he counsels and mentors.
“When you are batting you are on your own against the other team,” Doughty says. “You need great powers of concentration and self-discipline to do the best for yourself, but what you achieve also contributes to your team’s success.”
“Cricket teaches youngsters who are used to instant gratification how to build for their future. A cricketer scores a hundred gradually – with lots of little successes contributing to their overall success; so, too, does a player have to work hard over a number of years to reach the top and stay there.”
Doughty adds, that with so much in their lives instantly to hand, these sorts of concepts can be difficult for young people to acknowledge and apply. “Once you start making comparisons with what the likes of Kevin Pietersen, does, to achieve success; it becomes easier for young people to see the connections and value of working hard now, to achieve later.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Crispin Andrews is a freelance writer and a former teacher and sports coach.
