Print

[richthekeeper]

Hi guys, apologies if this has been discussed before but the search function was down when i tried it.

A bit of background for you - I started playing cricket for my club at the age of 13 and played until 16 when i stopped, to concentrate on football. Since returning at 21 i have progressed from the 5th XI to the 1st XI and have captained sides etc. I'd never dream of playing for another club in my local area. Recently I was asked to join the committee. I'm 28 now.

As I look around the club i notice that most of our players have come through the youth section and the club is very proud of its tradition in that area. However, the last good crop of juniors that came through are all now 21/22 as there has been a lack of emphasis on the youth. This is being addressed and we are looking at ways to improve engagement with the youth players.

We have the training in place with qualified ex-pro coaches etc so I am not concerned about that. I would be keen to hear your suggestions on how to make the juniors feel more part of the club in order to make them more interested in playing senior cricket and ultimately keeping them within the club.

One suggestion I came up with was to simply ask the juniors what they like/dislike about the club and what could make it better. I don't think this has been done before!

[charliemott]

I am 18 so have just gone through the conversion of youth to mens cricket. The biggest things for me were to feel welcome and know I would get a game. I always worried I would let the team down etc..so really make them feel like part of a team. Another thing is that you only ever really knew the players in your age group so maybe a club 6 a side with a player from each standard so you get to know each other. If the kids find friends in the club, they are much more likely to stay. Pm me for any other questions. 

[rbblack]

Charlie is correct - getting them involved is so key. You're idea of asking them about any issues or areas that they think the club can improve on is also a great way to enfranchise people.
Another simple way to get people involved is to give them a shot, lots of clubs have decent younger players coming through and then they don't give them the opportunities in the teams they should probably be playing in. That's pretty demoralising as a youngster.

[richthekeeper]

to elaborate a little on the problem - as i mentioned we haven't really had youngsters coming through for a few years now.

we currently have under 11s, 13s and 15s teams but nothing bridging the gap between junior and adult cricket. a lot of these lads will play 3rd/4th team cricket on a saturday though. we want to work on keeping these players in the club so that when they get to 16/17/18 they're actively involved in playing senior cricket

[rbblack]

If you guys don't play mid week Cricket try and organise a small Intra-club league with mixed teams of ages/abilities for a Last Man Stands tournament. LMS is 8 a side T20 with 5 ball overs, so fairly fast.

Other thing to consider would be joining an indoor league and having the team consist of the youth players?

[richthekeeper]

we do play midweek and it tends to be pretty competitive. the youth teams also play midweek and it's hard enough getting all the games in let alone adding to the burden!

i'm thinking more of off-field engagement if i'm totally honest.

[Neon Cricket]

This happened to me as a junior - I was consistently one of the best players in the Youth sides (won numerous player of the year awards etc) but only ever got minimal time in the Adult teams because they had their set teams (Very clicky) - as a result even though I'd finally got a solid place opening for the 3rd team the progression was so slow that I uprooted and moved clubs. A hard decision after 14 years at the same club but I certainly don't regret it - now playing in a higher division batting at 4/5 for the clubs' 1st XI.

Playing Juniors in Saturday League Cricket is key - my current club formed a 3rd XI especially for this, a few of the golden oldies along with the Juniors, they might not win every game but they enjoy it and the experience is fantastic for them, they're improving into some very good players and I can see the club benefiting massively in the next few years

[smilley792]

We seem to be good at this. Not entirely sure of our secret though,

Currently for Saturday cricket we have 76 players registered for 3 teams.
Only 15-20 of them did not play for our junior set up.

To accommodate juniors and keep the at the club after the u17 we have 3 sat sides, 2 Wednesday sides. And a Sunday side.


We ensure all juniors are are made to feel part of the club. We have u17s and u15s playing for all 5 adult sides, although mainly they are in the Sunday, midweek 2nd xi and 3rd team. The odd good ones make it into the first xi's

We also ensure they get there fair share of responsibility.  The. Id week second xi captaincy is always kept for an u17 to be in the role, with an experienced vice captain.
The Sunday xi vice captain is a junior.
We have 2 junior roles on our committee.
We have all youth training on a Friday night, so u17s , u15s, u13s and u11 are together. We encourage the u17s to train and buddy with the lower age groups. This has led to the. Wanting to be in a coaching role when the move to adult cricket.

How many clubs have 18s and19 year olds as coaches/managers for the junior set ups at there clubs? Not many.

We involve them in all tours  and friendlies.
We set mini buses on for them to watch the first xi's in cup finals/final days.

We also ensure they are well supported. Our u17s regally get 50 plus supporters at a game which includes the majority of the first andv2nd xi's there.
When our u17s got to there final. We had 200 supporters at the game.


This seems to have lead to them feeling part of our club and wanting to stay. You'll always lose a few to uni and work, but we average 8/9 players staying on from the junior set up when they become adults. Which is a good thing to have.

[Neon Cricket]

We seem to be good at this. Not entirely sure of our secret though,

Currently for Saturday cricket we have 76 players registered for 3 teams.
Only 15-20 of them did not play for our junior set up.

To accommodate juniors and keep the at the club after the u17 we have 3 sat sides, 2 Wednesday sides. And a Sunday side.


We ensure all juniors are are made to feel part of the club. We have u17s and u15s playing for all 5 adult sides, although mainly they are in the Sunday, midweek 2nd xi and 3rd team. The odd good ones make it into the first xi's

We also ensure they get there fair share of responsibility.  The. Id week second xi captaincy is always kept for an u17 to be in the role, with an experienced vice captain.
The Sunday xi vice captain is a junior.
We have 2 junior roles on our committee.
We have all youth training on a Friday night, so u17s , u15s, u13s and u11 are together. We encourage the u17s to train and buddy with the lower age groups. This has led to the. Wanting to be in a coaching role when the move to adult cricket.

How many clubs have 18s and19 year olds as coaches/managers for the junior set ups at there clubs? Not many.

We involve them in all tours  and friendlies.
We set mini buses on for them to watch the first xi's in cup finals/final days.

We also ensure they are well supported. Our u17s regally get 50 plus supporters at a game which includes the majority of the first andv2nd xi's there.
When our u17s got to there final. We had 200 supporters at the game.


This seems to have lead to them feeling part of our club and wanting to stay. You'll always lose a few to uni and work, but we average 8/9 players staying on from the junior set up when they become adults. Which is a good thing to have.

Sounds like a fantastic set up - your club should be very proud!!

[thecord]

One suggestion I came up with was to simply ask the juniors what they like/dislike about the club and what could make it better. I don't think this has been done before!

A brilliantly simple idea. I am sure the answers will be quite surprising.

We tend to find that integrating the juniors into the social side of the club is as important as the playing side.

[iand123]

It sounds like you cant do much else to be honest. Have you thought about expanding on a saturday? I know grounds can be an issue but my club has been in a similar issue where we've gone from 4 saturday sides to 6 in recent years. If you've got 76 registered players and only 33 of them getting a game each Saturday (appreciate there is other cricket for them to be involved with) even with the obvious wasteage of injuries/holidays etc you could get at least one more side out i'd have thought

[richthekeeper]

yes we run 4 saturday and 2 sunday sides! we used to have a saturday 5th XI but the problem is getting people to captain/administer it.

i guess we're not in terrible shape at all, but as a Premier League club we want to have a youth section that fits the profile of our first team.

[ProCricketer1982]

I never played when young but I'm a big kid and want to play all the time (as do youths). Offering meaningful games is the key IMO. Sunday friendlies are all well and good but people want to play meaningful cricket, so having more Saturday league sides AND running them on current merit rather than historical merit too. Every player, young and old needs to actually get a game but unfortunately teams think they are playing pro level and win at all costs so that not so good jnr ends up as specialist fielder


Sad to see really as everyone should have a role and if they can't then don't pick them in that team bit have a team for them in their role.

My club now has 3 Sat teams, 2 sun teams, tour games, Curtis Bennett cup, county cup, t20 cup, t20 league. I think we need another Saturday side and another midweek t20 side personally to ensure everyone gets a game and no rotation,

[charliemott]

A sunday side - as mentioned above is a great idea...Name it your development team or something similar to intce the youngsters, ask the first and second XI players to play 1 or 2 games each a year (in which they captain) and there you have a mixed age youth team playing friendleys with the experience and guided of a experienced player or two.

[Jimmyg]

The key issue is to make sure that the junior players when making their first steps into senior cricket need to feel welcome and an integral part of that section. The senior section of the club need to understand that junior players development needs to be considered when selecting teams, not just throwing the juniors afew games to make the numbers up. My club has introduced a mentoring system where suitable Seniors are paired up with Juniors who are playing in adult games, to give them advise and support during the transition to adult cricket.