{"id":257839,"date":"2025-11-12T01:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T01:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/257839\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T01:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T01:41:08","slug":"state-school-cricket-mcc-president-ed-smith-says-better-co-ordination-can-help-address-digital-addiction-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/257839\/","title":{"rendered":"State school cricket: MCC president Ed Smith says ‘better co-ordination’ can help address ‘digital addiction’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The report<\/a> 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

“We know that there has been a narrowing social base in terms of the composition of the England team,” added Smith.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

The Knight-Stokes Cup is the brainchild of former England captain Michael Vaughan and MCC chair Mark Nicholas. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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” in those of school age.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, the 48-year-old said cricket still needs a “co-ordinated and aligned conversation” between the government, England and Wales…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-257839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}