{"id":614642,"date":"2026-04-18T07:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T07:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614642\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T07:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T07:53:14","slug":"new-cup-a-catalyst-for-cricket-in-state-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614642\/","title":{"rendered":"New cup ‘a catalyst’ for cricket in state schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Schools from across the south have entered a new cricket competition designed to get state-educated children into the sport.<\/p>\n

Dozens of schools across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight have signed up for the first round of the Knight-Stokes Cup – all with the hope of making it to the finals at Lord’s Cricket Ground later this year.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The new T20 competition, which has been named after state-educated England cricketers Heather Knight and Ben Stokes, has been organised by the iconic Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).<\/p>\n

MCC president Ed Smith told BBC South that he hoped the tournament would “act as a catalyst for boosting cricket in state schools”.<\/p>\n

“The more people who are playing cricket passionately, and it is a big part of their lives, the better it is for the game, full stop,” Smith said.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The tournament will conclude with finals played at the home of cricket, Lord’s [PA Media]<\/p>\n

In Oxfordshire, 15 schools from across the county have entered the competition alongside 12 from neighbouring Berkshire.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly on the south coast, 22 schools from first-class county Hampshire have entered, and will be joined by nine from Dorset and five from the Isle of Wight.<\/p>\n

They make up just a small section of the 750 schools across England and Wales taking part in the cup’s inaugural edition, with more than a thousand teams taking part across the boys and girls competition.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

“Whilst of course anyone that enters the competition wants to win it, let’s be clear, this is about much more than that,” former England and Middlesex batter Smith said.<\/p>\n

“The more people that finish this competition with a love of cricket, that’s how we should measure its success.”<\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/p>\n

MCC President Ed Smith said he hoped the tournament would “act as a catalyst for boosting cricket in state schools” [Getty Images]<\/p>\n

The Knight-Stokes Cup was the brainchild of former England captain Michael Vaughan and MCC chair Mark Nicholas, and is being organised by the MCC Foundation – the organisation’s charitable arm.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

It comes following a 2023 report found that reported elitism and class-based discrimination in cricket was partly down to a lack of access to the sport in state schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“My dad was an English teacher and he used to say the job of an English teacher is to sell books,” Smith, who was also previously an England selector, said.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

“In the same way, the real task of a cricket institution is to try and encourage more people to love the game and to show what it can do and the meaning and texture it can give to life.<\/p>\n

“That’s what this is about.”<\/p>\n

More on this storyMore on this story\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Schools from across the south have entered a new cricket competition designed to get state-educated children into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,2129,740,298366,1208,124911,43815,85,298367],"class_list":{"0":"post-614642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ben-stokes","11":"tag-cricket","12":"tag-ed-smith","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-heather-knight","15":"tag-marylebone-cricket-club","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-state-schools"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}