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[Percy]

Hi All

In my sons cricket club there are two managers of the U13 side - one manages the "performance" squad the other the "development" squad, although they are not formally called this. The performance squad consists mainly of boys who play a lot of cricket, are competitive and always make themselves available; the development squad is more for those who want to have a more "relaxed" game and give it a go.

The issue is this: the club is entering a number of teams in a local cricket festival; this is being co-ordinated by the development squad manager. He wants to mix the boys up so that each team is a mix of abilities, the performance team (and their manager) want to stay together  so that they can have a chance of winning the festival. Do you think this is an unreasonable approach/request and how would you handle it?

This is endanger of causing some ill feeling between the two managers.

Cheers

[MD2812]

As a kid i'd have wanted to enter as part of the development squad get me a medal.

[tate035]

If you have players of ability who are now old enough to play senior cricket then why enter a competition unless you intend to try and win it? The whole idea for me is that the more things you win the more you tend to enjoy that sport. Hopefully, then that kid will work harder at that sport and with the right coaching and parental encouragement could become the future of English cricket.

[stevat]

You see a lot of this in junior football too, loads of amateur Mourinho's prowling the touchline trying to win under-13s competitions as if it were the European Cup Final.  Junior cricket that I played in was competitive, but was better when the emphasis was on learning and developing your skills and technique. 

I personally would ask the kids in the development team what they want first and then make my mind up, trying to push them towards mixing.  Especially as mixing gives the better lads/lasses more of a challenge, they've to try and consider game situations when playing with players of differing abilities etc.

Also, if they've any pretense of becoming a professional cricketer, nobody (not even themselves) will care what they won when they were 13, just how much they developed and improved as a player.

You could always point out to the performance teams manager that they would never live it down if the development lot got farther than them in the same tournament.

[ProCricketer1982]

I do find it amusing how much stock under x coaches and parents put on kids/youth sport. It means nothing!! Just use it to learn and develop, winning is nice of course but just because little jimmy played district under 15's or maybe won 4 under 13/15 cups means nothing. I want to see what they are like when they are 20, not what they are like when they are kids.

Just mix it up and then your good players have more pressure on them and will learn more, your less talented guys will potentially learn more from teh better players and so develop players for first, second, third and fourth teams.. not all about the firsts all the time!

[stevat]

I do find it amusing how much stock under x coaches and parents put on kids/youth sport. It means nothing!! Just use it to learn and develop, winning is nice of course but just because little jimmy played district under 15's or maybe won 4 under 13/15 cups means nothing. I want to see what they are like when they are 20, not what they are like when they are kids.

Just mix it up and then your good players have more pressure on them and will learn more, your less talented guys will potentially learn more from teh better players and so develop players for first, second, third and fourth teams.. not all about the firsts all the time!

Spot on, the perfect attitude towards this conundrum.  Should be encouraging kids to work together, mix in and muck in.  Last thing you want to do is turn people off the game.  What if three or four of those kids are turned off the game by being so poorly thought of - they could be late developers and be fantastic players, or they could just end up losing interest in the game and future fans are lost.

[Buzz]

I agree, mix the teams up and challenge them both to reach the final

[no1northernbloke]

In all likelihood if you mix up the teams then the better players from the performance squad will 'do' everything in the two teams. So the chances are the guys from the development squad will do less then they would normally. Onviously this is bearing in mind that you actually want to try and win the competition. I'd keep them separate.

[The Palmist]

In all likelihood if you mix up the teams then the better players from the performance squad will 'do' everything in the two teams.

This is not limited to junior cricket, we see this happening in senior cricket as well. Handful of players doing batting, bowling everything. Makes it difficult for number 6,7,8 working hard to get their way up. First they don't get to bat and when they do, they can't afford to not perform.

[trypewriter]

Mixing them up will cause even more unrest in my experience as one team will still look stronger than the other. Just wait for the chin music from parents whose performance players are in the perceived weaker team!

[tate035]

Mixing them up will cause even more unrest in my experience as one team will still look stronger than the other. Just wait for the chin music from parents whose performance players are in the perceived weaker team!

I agree. In fact I have even see it happen  90% of parents have "rose tinted glasses"