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Six Stages of US Youth Cricket Development
I’ve spent a lot of time talking and writing about how to get kids
playing cricket in America, and the importance of taking the game to
them while they are still in elementary school.
What
I’ve discovered in the past few months is that I was not alone in my
view of things; in fact, it seems as if there were literally hundreds of
you who had the same idea, but were just waiting for someone to raise a
flag somewhere to rally around. For many of you, the USYCA has become
that flag, and for that I am deeply grateful.
As the USYCA has rapidly expanded, I am often asked for my broader view
of cricket development in America. In other words: “OK, so you teach
them the game while they’re young. Then what?” Sometimes, this question
disguises a deeper concern that the USYCA intends to replace or supplant
existing academies, clinics and youth leagues.
Nothing, of course, could be farther from the truth.
In my “cricket worldview,” I see the USYCA, academies, clinics, clubs
and youth teams as partners in a harmoniously synchronized process, by
which small children who know nothing about cricket become young adults
competing for spots on national teams. As I see it, everyone has a
specific, and very important role to play, and if the process fails at
any point along the way, the end objective is not met.
Let me explain.
The process I will describe can be separated into six unique stages,
each with its own place and clientele. If we try to cheat the system by
skipping stages, the result will usually be less than satisfying. On the
other hand, if we adhere tightly to the developmental process, we will,
with patience and in time, produce a generation of Americans that can
compete with, and win matches against, any nation in the world.

Here are the stages, described:
Stage 1 – Young children are introduced to a
low-intensity, fun-filled version of cricket in places such as
elementary schools, summer camps or public demonstrations. In this
stage, the emphasis is on teaching the simplest forms of the game, and
allowing the children to quickly play the game with very little pressure
or technical instruction. Here we nurture their love for cricket by
letting them enjoy it; in Stage 1, it’s all about the fun.
Stage 2 – Here children are formed into
community softball cricket leagues, where the fun can continue outside
of the limitations of gym class. By expanding the time when they can
play, we are allowed to do some rudimentary instruction and we can
devote more resources to nurturing not just their love for the game, but
also their understanding of it. It is in Stage 2 where some children
will begin to separate themselves from their peers, and many of these
children will yearn for something more challenging; these we will
channel toward local academies, indoor facilities and other
instructional programs.
Stage 3 – This is where we will find our our
indoor training facilities and specialist coaching clinics. These are
the places where parents will bring their aspiring young cricketer to
learn the proper way to play a pull shot, to stump a batter or to bowl
with leg spin. Here the children will first put on their cricket armor
and stride clumsily into the nets, where, with the patient encouragement
of a dedicated coach, they will learn to be of value to their team.
This is the stage where the hard, “nitty-gritty” work of cricket
development takes place. Here much sweat and frustration will be
invested, and trusting parents will spend many dollars. Here, the raw,
unskilled youngster will become the promising new talent of tomorrow.
Stage 3, then, is the factory floor where the raw material supplied by
Stages 1 and 2 become products ready for the finishing work of Stages 4
and 5.
Stage 4 – Now our young prospect is finally
ready be placed on youth hardball teams, playing in youth hardball
leagues. This is a critical development, because we all know that there
is only so much coaching that is possible in the nets; much of what is
learned must be discovered under fire, in the lonely 22 yards that rests
between the wickets.
In Stage 4 we discover whether the promise that was displayed in
practice will be carried over into live matches; in Stage 4 we get to
see which players will be solid performers, which will be disappointing,
and yes, every now and again, which will be considered as top prospects
for our national teams. In Stage 4, as we watch certain players execute
to perfection, we begin to get excited.
Stage 5 – In this stage, the most talented young
players compete for, and are selected to, regional and national youth
teams. Here, the kid we’ve “had our eye on” since the age of eight is
selected to represent his country against the world’s best youth
players. This stage also continues, and elevates, the coaching continuum
that our youngster has been receiving; now, as a member of a regional
or national squad, the player receives the absolute best coaching that
is available to someone at that age.
In Stage 5, the United States begins to reap the rewards for all of the
time, hard work and dedication put forward in Stages 1-4. Those who
aren’t selected for a regional or national team will continue to play
for local clubs as they pursue their dream, or simply their passion.
Stage 6 – And now, at last, we get the big
payoff for all that has come before. In Stage 6, our little boy or girl
of yesterday is elevated to the national senior team that will carry the
flag of the United States into battle against the best cricketers on
the face of the earth. In Stage 6, we will debate the wisdom of having
the boy from Texas as one of the opening batsmen; we will argue over
whether the girl from Ohio should have bowled the final over; and we
will rejoice as a nation when the kid from Kansas hits a match-winning
six against Australia. In Stage 6, the process is complete, and America
has taken its place beside the other cricketing nations of the world.
In examining these stages, it becomes easy to identify what programs fit
into what stages. While USYCA is clearly focused on Stages 1 and 2;
other organizations have varying objectives. While some organizations
like DreamCricket Academy run Stage 1 and Stage 2 programs in addition
to Stage 3 clinics, many other academies are mostly focused on Stage 3
programs, while the teams they sponsor fall squarely into Stage 4.
In this hierarchy, the role of the USYCA is to provide guidance,
structure and support for Stage 1 and 2 programs, including, but not
limited to, material support, networking, sharing of resources and
practical advice, such as developing “best practices.” By partnering
with the USYCA, programs are able to leverage a powerful resource that
will enable them to accomplish much more, much faster.
The distinctions between stages are not arbitrary, in fact, they are
terribly important, because when it comes to introducing the game of
cricket to a child with no previous knowledge of it, we can see that
there is a clear correlation between the stage at which that child
discovers cricket and the likelihood that the child will adopt the game
and play it well.
For example, a child who first learns the game at age seven in school,
and then methodically ascends the stages of development will undoubtedly
be more likely to stay with cricket than a child of the same age who is
introduced to the game at a Stage 3 facility. There’s nothing wrong
with the Stage 3 program, it just serves a different purpose and is not a
place for discovering the joy of cricket.
In a Stage 3 facility, the focus is on coaching and perfecting technique
more so than having fun; a novice, especially a young one, will quickly
tire of spending hours on his grip and stance when he’d rather be
running and playing with wild abandon.
In the past, we have expended far too much time and energy trying to
“game the system” by thinking we can jump to Stage 3, and turn kids on
to cricket by putting them in helmet and pads and then spending a half
an hour with them trying to perfect their swing.
Think about the way you first played the game when you were a child. How
long was it before you first put on the heavy gear? And in the
meantime, how many hours did you spend racing back and forth between the
wickets? (Even if the wickets were your mother’s kitchen chairs.) We
must first fall in love with cricket by playing it, before we can find
the determination to work hard enough at it to become good. And don’t
think, not even for a minute, that children new to the game will look
forward to the prospect of standing around in pads being coached on
their technique. Children want to run; children want to shout; children
want to play – not to be coached.
This is where the stages help us to recognize the truth: It becomes
incrementally more difficult to convert someone to cricket as we move up
the stages. While it is easy to create cricket lovers from novices in
Stage 1 and even Stage 2 programs, it is considerably more difficult in a
Stage 3 program, and impossible beyond that point. (Let’s face it:
placing a novice in a Stage 4 program might just get him killed). And
the wonderful thing about following the program in stages is that the
child will almost always tell you when it’s time to move up a level.
As a teacher at Cardinal Gibbons School, I watched cricket become an
overnight phenomenon for dozens of teenagers. Luckily for them, I didn’t
know enough about cricket at the time to be able to think I could coach
them; otherwise I probably would have wrecked their fun and ruined
their enthusiasm.
In April-May of 2008, they played Stage 1 cricket; in
September-November, they played Stage 2 cricket; over the winter, they
played Stage 3 cricket and in the spring they played Stage 4 cricket –
and it worked at every step along the way. Within 12 months, twenty kids
went from knowing nothing about the game to being fanatics who were
willing to pay $150 each for the chance to be annihilated on a weekly
basis by experienced players. That experience was my cricket laboratory,
and I’m pleased to say that the elixir has been perfected.
All we need now are enough doctors to distribute the medicine or to help
facilitate its distribution; many have volunteered already – I hope
that you will join us in this sport revolution.
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