MCC Foundation Nottingham Cricket Hub

Nottingham High School hosts the MCCF Nottingham Cricket Hub, one of 38 Hubs set up across the United Kingdom by the charitable arm of the world-famous Marylebone Cricket Club, owner of Lord's Cricket Ground.  The Nottingham Hub will join other MCCF Hubs around the country in providing free, high-quality coaching to talented athletes in local state schools who have the potential to become good cricketers.

The initiative was set up after research showed that 93% of state schools no longer offer cricket lessons and that 65% of the England team come from fee-paying schools.  Nottingham High School is donating its outstanding facilities to the MCCF and the Nottingham cricket community completely free of charge.

Aims

The 40 Nottingham Hub attenders (20 x U13 and 20 x U15) were selected from 17 local state secondary schools following extensive trials conducted by professional coaches. These two groups will receive 20 hours of coaching spread over ten weeks by three ECB Level Three coaches.

Nottingham High School Head of Cricket is the manager of the Nottingham Hub and is operating in close partnership with local cricket clubs and the County Board to make sure that appropriate links are in place to feed Hub children into clubs, and those with exceptional talent into the Nottinghamshire Player Pathway.

 

Impact

The Head said: "It was evident that cricket is increasingly becoming the preserve of those who can pay for education and this is unfair on all those talented children in state schools who could benefit from all that cricket has to offer. Nottingham High School is delighted to bring an MCCF Hub to the city, so that young local cricketers in state schools can benefit from free, dedicated coaching from a talented team."

The MCC President and a Trustee of MCCF said: "We are hugely grateful to Nottingham High School and a consortium of local MCC Members for supporting the costs of our latest cricket Hub. It is fantastic to see the new Hub up and running with so many talented state school children attending and with the full support of the County Board youth development team."

 

Pupil Involvement

Pupils from the 20 local state schools are involved with the project and are attending regularly.