Pairs cricket - are we doing the best for our kids?

John and Jack

I had a rare evening free from coaching recently so I took the opportunity to go for a family walk with my wife and daughter. It was during this walk that we came across a kids’ cricket match between two local teams. It was an U11 match played on an artificial grass wicket. Funnily enough, the first kid I saw was a double hopper (I need to send those coaches my last blog!) 

I was about to move on when I noticed a family friend was there with his eight year old son. Let’s call my friend John and his son Jack (not their real names but for the purpose of this blog those names will do). Jack was padded up and due in next so we stopped our walk to say hello to John and to watch Jack bat. I was quite excited to see Jack bat as he is one of those kids who simply loves the game. 

Prep school cricket

I taught cricket at a UK Prep school for ten years. At prep school level, the boys who were good at batting were usually good bowlers, and vice versa.  It was very rare for a student at school boy level not to be an all-rounder. It was normal that a school team would have two or three of these players and the result of a fixture between the schools would often hinge on the performances of these two or three players. The rest of the team were mostly Footballers or Rugby players playing Cricket because they had to and were the next best sportsmen in the school. They were there to make up the numbers so that the school could play as a team. 

Club cricket

In the younger age groups at clubs, kids also tend to be able to bat and bowl. It is not until they reach their teens that they start to specialise in one or the other.  What makes club cricket different from the school teams is that boys and girls who join a cricket club do so because they have a genuine love for the game. These are the keen cricketers, the ones that will potentially play cricket well into their adult lives. These are the kids who idolize players on TV and mimic the bowling actions and batting shots of their heroes. These youngsters need to be developed and encouraged, to foster a life-long love of the sport.

Eye opener

Back to the game and it was finally Jack’s turn to bat. I was nervous for him, but he strolled into bat with confidence and a determination to do well. 

The next twelve minutes were a real eye opener for me,  as things didn’t go to plan for Jack. His innings got me thinking about kids’ cricket and how we as coaches could do things differently. Admittedly this was a one off experience but I felt really sorry for Jack and wondered if what I witnessed was happening to kids in cricket matches all around the country. I felt the organisers of the game had failed Jack and it got me thinking about how matches for the youngest age groups could be structured to give kids a better experience. 

Jack’s four overs

The match was a hard ball pairs match which meant that each batting pair would face four five-ball overs each. Every time the batter got out they would lose four runs from their team’s starting score of 200 runs. 

Unfortunately, Jack and his partner did not fare well. Jack himself faced a total of six balls out of the twenty bowled. He was bowled twice, hit on the fingers once, faced two balls which he missed and the highlight of his innings was an inside edge to fine leg which at least got him a run. His partner faced the other 14 balls but didn’t hit many of them. 

To his credit at the end of the four overs, Jack came off the pitch with a massive smile on his face. He said to his Dad, ‘Those bowlers were really fast’, and they were. The bowlers from the opposition team were way too fast for Jack and his partner. They were the team’s two best bowlers brought back by the coach to end the innings. Boys were permitted to bowl a maximum of four overs each so the coach made sure the best players in his team did so. 

I know Jack well, he has been a family friend for years and he is a close friend of my daughter. Jack absolutely loves cricket, he is the sort of kid that can’t wait until his next match and for any opportunity to play. He is not a bad cricketer either. If given the opportunity against players at his level he can perform very well. As a former teacher and current cricket coach, I fail to see what positives Jack could have taken from this experience. How has he benefited as a cricketer by playing in this match? The answer is simple; he hasn’t benefited at all. 

How to do pairs cricket better

I am all for the pairs format in young kids’ cricket. On paper it gives every batter the chance to face an equal number of deliveries. However, I think coaches need to make a few adjustments to the way the matches are structured, to give all players the chance to develop their skills and stretch their ability. Remember that at this age kids tend to be good at both batting and bowling, so my idea may just work. 

Seed the players

The coaches of both teams would seed their pairs from one to five with the wicket keeper for both teams seeded 6th. So the two best players will be seeded one, your third and fourth best players seeded two and so on down to your 5th pair. 

The kids don’t need to know what seed they are, the coaches can keep this information to themselves. What is important though is that the seeds bowl and bat against the seeds equal to them in the opposition team. The 6th seeded player would be the wicket keeper and they could bat with a runner and face one ball from every bowler. They would face 10 balls, equal to that of the other players in the team. To save time, the balls should be bowled from the same end.

The pairs can be batted in any order, in fact it is best that the coaches mix it up so that the kids don’t cotton on to the idea that they are the best or the worst in the team. The match would then be as evenly balanced as possible and fun for everyone involved. The team with the greatest depth would win and the coaches can leave the game knowing that they have challenged all the players in their team against players of similar ability from the opposition. Every player except the wicket keeper would have bowled eleven balls (if sticking to the five balls per over rule) and everyone involved in the match could say they had contributed equally to the result. 

Nine-aside matches

If I could be so bold and take things a step further, I would suggest reducing the matches to nine a side contests. That way you would only have four batting pairs seeded one to four plus the keepers seeded 5th. Matches could be extended to four seven-ball overs per batting pair. The wicket keeper would bat with a runner and face two balls from every bowler. The kids would then be involved for twenty-eight balls when batting and also get to bowl sixteen deliveries per match. 

Natural drop off

Kid’s cricket is fantastic when done well, and I applaud all the parents and coaches who give up their time to run the matches. As kids get older and progress away from pairs cricket into limited overs cricket, there will be a natural drop off from kids who feel they are not getting a fair go. Unfortunately that is the nature of the game, not everyone can bat in the top order and not everybody will get picked to bowl. Until then, is it not our responsibility as coaches and parents to provide every kid with a love of cricket an equal chance to shine and to feel part of a team?

Why not consider my idea the next time you organise a kids’ match? What is important at this early stage is that kids enjoy the game, that they are challenged by opposition of equal ability and that they learn to enjoy contributing to their team’s success or failures. After all, isn’t that why we as adults love this game so much?

(Don’t forget that another way to foster a love of cricket is with the Flickit Cricket game!  Have you ordered yours yet?!)