Manage your account
…
Cricket's stakeholders need to work together "better" to revive the sport in state schools and help address "digital addiction" in young people, says Marylebone Cricket Club president Ed Smith.
The MCC has received 1,084 entries for next year's Knight-Stokes Cup – a new T20 tournament for secondary state schools named after state-educated England cricketers Heather Knight and Ben Stokes.
A total of 700 boys' teams and 384 girls' teams from 750 different schools have entered the inaugural competition, which has its final at Lord's.
The most number of entries have come from schools in Yorkshire with 108, followed by Middlesex (83) and Lancashire (75).
Former England, Kent and Middlesex batter Smith said the fact one in five of all secondary state schools in the UK will take part represented an "amazing take up" and a "step in the right direction".
However, the 48-year-old said cricket still needs a "co-ordinated and aligned conversation" between the government, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), charities such as Chance to Shine, MCC, and the schools themselves.
"There's a whole series of things that have to come together ultimately to really shift the dial hugely for cricket in state schools," Smith told BBC Sport.
"What I think we can be reasonably clear about is that an overarching co-ordinated approach to promote the value of sport could be done better than it's currently being done."
In 2023, the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) reported elitism and class-based discrimination in the game was partly down to a lack of cricket in state schools and a talent pathway structurally aligned to private schools.
The report noted some 58% of men to play for England in 2021 were privately educated, significantly higher than the 7% of the general population who went to private school.
"We know that there has been a narrowing social base in terms of the composition of the England team," added Smith.
"The Knight-Stokes Trophy is not going to be a complete or final catch-all solution. But if it can accelerate and elevate the conversation about the value of sport in state schools, that would be a wonderful thing."
The Knight-Stokes Cup is the brainchild of former England captain Michael Vaughan and MCC chair Mark Nicholas.
MCC Foundation, the charitable arm of the organisation, has responsibility for arranging and delivering the competition, with the early rounds overseen by the local counties.
Smith, who has made the success of the first competition a key issue in his year-long stint as MCC president, said cricket has the power to reduce "smartphone addiction".
He added: "I think the point that Jonathan Haidt makes brilliantly in his book 'Anxious Generation' is that it cannot be a coincidence we are seeing such a rise in teenage depression and anxiety, given people are spending so much time online.
"There is a tipping point about digital addiction in this country. It's a super moment for cricket to be at the forefront of what can be done."
Government pledges £1.5m for two new cricket domes
State schools to play cricket at Lord's ground
Get cricket news sent straight to your phone
