All's not cricket on playing fields, say English youngsters

LONDON LETTER:Cricket can be a cauldron of bullying, with half of those who played saying they had been teased and taunted on the pitch

CRICKET IS supposed to teach children about fair play, but not always.

The game evokes images of the hard clunk of the bat, smoothly cut grass, impeccably dressed men in whites and afternoon teas, but in English schools it can often be a cauldron of bullying and taunts, according to a new survey.

The worrying findings were unearthed by the home of English cricket, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the Chance to Shine campaign, which is bidding to bring competitive cricket to two million children by 2015.

More than two-thirds of children, aged between eight and 16, surveyed reported that they had witnessed verbal abuse, while just over half admitted they had been victims of teasing, taunts, or threats on the field.

Just over half have said they had seen a player struck with a bat. Even eight-year-olds are not immune, with four in 10 saying they had witnessed violence. Even a head-butt is not unknown on the playing fields.

One in five children said they believed their team mates and the opposition had “little, or no respect” for umpires, while one in seven children admitted privately that they had learned lessons from bullies and inflicted their own revenge.

Parents agreed. Two-thirds of them said they had witnessed bullying, while two-in-five said that their own children had lost confidence as a result, and a fifth said their child no longer wanted to play.

Mothers and fathers find different ways of coping, it seems. Mothers are more inclined to go to a teacher, coach or referee to raise concerns. However, a third of all fathers, who spot the problem quicker than mothers, confront the bully themselves.

The problem, not just on cricket pitches but on sports fields of all types, is not spread equally, with Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff and Liverpool holding unenviable places as the worst places for mental intimidation.

Cricket clubs and schools, to be fair, are not inactive. In Huddersfield in Yorkshire, the Paddock Cricket Club declares firmly that it is “a telling club”, where anyone with knowledge of bullying is “expected” to tell staff and officials.

Declaring its determination to offer “a caring, friendly and safe environment” so that children can train and play “in a relaxed and secure atmosphere”, Paddock warns that “bullying of any kind is unacceptable”.

Nevertheless, children were still reluctant to come forward on their own, according to the survey. Three-fifths felt “unable to tell anyone”, and said they were “too scared” or there was “no point” in doing so.

One 12-year-old said: “At secondary school you need to sort out your own problems sometimes since your parents cannot do anything about it and the coaches and teachers are often very busy.” Making no effort to downplay the problems, the MCC’s head of cricket, John Stephenson, this week said the survey highlighted “an alarming trend in school sport, which needs to be proactively addressed”.

Chance To Shine, which is supported by philanthropic donors and backed by governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King, has for six years worked with county cricket boards to bring coaches into schools to help “develop important skills, values and attitudes for their future lives”.

Before Chance To Shine began work, just one in 10 English schools offered organised cricket. So far, one million children have been brought into contact with bat and ball, often helping to integrate immigrant children.

One London inner-city teacher said: “A lot of our Bengali children have academic difficulties and we have found that in sporting activities they may have a hidden talent. If you get them on a cricket pitch, they are up there with their peers, or even ahead.” The push behind competitive sport fits in with the views of secretary of state for education Michael Gove, who has mocked the banning of all contests by some Labour- controlled councils, believing a child’s self-worth is damaged by defeat.

Chance to Shine’s chief executive Wasim Khan, who is concerned that good work could be undone, said the bullying survey had illustrated that a “kind of psychological warfare” was being waged on playing fields’, rather than traditional cricketing notions.

“We are teaching children from a young age to play competitively, but also to respect the opposition as well as their team mates. We need to stamp out this bullying in school sport,” said Khan, who needs to raise £5 million to keep the coaching going until 2015.

From this week, instructors recruited by Chance to Shine and the MCC’s own Spirit of Cricket campaign are to begin the job of getting around to 4,000 schools to inculcate the virtues of “playing hard, but fair”.

However, children are influenced by people never known to have donned whites. Almost one-fifth of parents believe that Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney is a bad role model, followed closely by Chelsea’s John Terry.

Not everything is glum, however. The old-fashioned sadistic PE teacher, who tortured a generation of parents during their own school days, has receded into history, with two-thirds of children saying that they had never seen such an ogre.