Knight-Stokes Cup sets up much-needed platform for state school cricket

As a state school-educated international cricketer, the former England bowler Sajid Mahmood has always been in the minority. A report from the Sutton Trust charity last year found 59% of professional male cricketers in England went to independent schools, ranking the sport behind only the armed forces (63%) and senior judges (62%) as the country’s most privately educated profession. Yet Mahmood has become even more of an outlier since his playing retirement.

While it is common for former professional cricketers to take up positions as private school coaches once they hang up their playing boots, Mahmood has spent the past eight years teaching the sport to state school students in west London. It is a path so uncommon that he is yet to encounter another England cricketer in the state system.

“I’m fully aware of state schools not really having cricket opportunities,” said Mahmood, who played 38 times for England between 2004 and 2009. “That’s where I came from, so it was important for me to give those opportunities to people who can’t necessarily access good coaching or get an insight into what it takes to play professionally.

“I’m quite passionate about passing on that knowledge to state school kids. I want to level that playing field, almost.”

That passion has seen Mahmood become an unofficial ambassador for a new national cricket competition launched last week solely for state-educated children. In a couple of days, Mahmood’s school – William Perkin Church of England High School, in Greenford – will play their opening fixture in the Knight-Stokes Cup.

Named after two of England’s greatest state-educated cricketers, Ben Stokes and Heather Knight, the competition will culminate in a Finals Day on the main pitch at Lord’s in September. Open to all state schools in the United Kingdom, around one-fifth have signed up to take part, with approximately 1,100 boys’ and 400 girls’ under-15 teams vying for a rare chance to play at the home of cricket.

It is an admirable concept, launched as an attempt to counter-balance the longstanding elitist fixture between Eton and Harrow that still takes place at Lord’s each year in spite of growing opposition. And it is something the MCC Foundation, who are organising and delivering the competition, are taking seriously, with a new honours board installed in the pavilion for the winners.

“I love the fact that there’s been some time, money and exposure being pushed towards specifically a state school competition,” said Stokes. “Sometimes that’s where you find the rogue, raw, rare, talented people.”

The extent of its ambition is realistic. In launching the tournament, the MCC president, Ed Smith, described it as “a catalyst” rather than “a complete answer on its own”. No one competition can shift an entire national landscape, especially when there are overwhelmingly large factors preventing the sport’s widespread growth.

In news that will surprise no one, the main impediment to state school cricket up and down the country remains a pitiful lack of facilities – a fact that different governments over multiple decades are answerable for.

Mahmood’s school is one of the fortunate ones. Thanks to a previous sport-loving headteacher who placed importance on physical activity, pupils there have access to an outdoor cricket pitch, four outdoor nets and four more indoors.

At Blythe Bridge High School, in Staffordshire, there are no playing or training facilities, although the school’s healthy local relationships mean they are able to play and train at a number of cricket clubs nearby. With a smattering of players on the cusp of county recognition and a hat-trick from star man Oliver Staten, they eased through their opening fixture last week and have high hopes.

“Our kids are excited about this,” said Cory Flint, Blythe Bridge’s head of PE. “We’re quite a strong state school so we’ve said that we can go pretty far in the competition. But you never know.”

At the Winston Churchill School in Surrey, ambitions are somewhat lower. Matches are played on a worn artificial strip in the middle of the school’s running track. “The players just wear their PE kit,” said PE teacher Jack Fuller. “We don’t ask them to wear full whites because we don’t want to make students buy something if they are only going to play a few games.”

Playing regulations for the competition are intentionally loose to remove as many impediments as possible. Mahmood also points to the importance of private schools signing up for their state equivalents to use their facilities during the tournament. Collaboration is a key part of the vision.

“There’s been close to 100 independent schools who have put their names forward, which I think is crucial,” said the former Lancashire bowler. “Living as neighbours, it’s important that the independent schools allow state schools to use those facilities as well – that’s one of the ways we can really use the competition to grow the sport. Independent schools are playing their part in this as well.”

The competition’s primary aim is to broaden cricket’s reach – an ambition that is difficult to construe negatively, regardless of how shallow the impact of one competition might be. A secondary ambition is to potentially unearth some gems.

“Hopefully in five or six years’ time, you’ve got six or seven players who are professionally contracted that can say they were part of the Knight-Stokes Cup,” said Stokes.

Mahmood agreed: “Towards the latter end of the tournament, we might see some really good players. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find some who haven’t been involved in any pathway and actually get earmarked for county cricket.”

That is all for the future. Small seeds, humble beginnings and all that. As Mahmood says: “The more we can get done, the more it goes from a box-ticking tournament to something that can actually make a real impact.”

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