MCCF Girls' Cricket Hub

In 2011 the MCCF launched its Cricket Hub initiative. There are now 38 Hubs across the UK, providing free, professional coaching to talented athletes from state secondary schools. We coach Hub participants to attain a high standard of playing, encourage them to join local cricket clubs and mentor them into County and District squads.

The Felsted Hub for girls' cricket started in November 2015 and we have had steady numbers attending the sessions, with a max of 17 in each age group. After a quiet start the girls have grown in confidence, both with each other and in their abilities. Training is a mix of drills and game-based learning and we find that the girls enjoy the responsibility we give them to take hold of their own development. We give them advice on what they can do outside of the sessions to improve and leave it up to them to carry it out. As the weeks have gone by we are seeing more working on skills outside of the sessions and therefore developing their responsibility to themselves and to the team. We also try and lay the groundwork in getting the girls used to delivering knowledge to help them in all aspects of their life, as well as hopefully getting them interested in coaching later. They explain training stations to the rest of their group, offer peer feedback and come up with adaptations of games and drills.

The range of schools that we have girls from spans the whole of the county and is good to see. Having a girl in the squads has opened up talks with those schools and the county and should hopefully encourage more participation from the schools in local tournaments. We have also engaged two mums, who have recently completed their Certificate in Coaching, to volunteer and help the girls while also developing them in to potential hub leaders in the future. There are plans for matches against other counties, club sides and schools planned for the summer as well as a tour to Malvern for the Intermediate Group.€

Reece Bird
The Felsted Hub Manager

To find out more about the MCCF Cricket Hub initiative, please click here.