The Active Interns - Summer 2023: Cricket
(Rae Allen/ Wikicommons)
Brief History of Cricket
Cricket has been around since as early the 16th century. It was originally just a kid’s English game that was played in their spare time. They originally used hockey like sticks as their bats but has evolved into the bats that are commonly used today. It originated in England then started to gain popularity through English colonies in the 18th and 19th century in Canada and United States. Then eventually reaching India, South Africa and New Zealand in the early 19th century.
Cricket is a game that can lasts for days at a time with how it is formatted. In the 21st century they innovated a new style called T20, where games are typically one round and would last typically three hours. Today there are a variety of ways to play the game of cricket to make games much shorter and more accessible to the general public. It is a game that has a huge international audience compared to North America which cricket is still seen as a more niche sport. But the sport is gaining more popularity here.
Not familiar with Cricket? Here is a great breakdown from a person who enjoys baseball as a sport!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfhTPGSy1aM
Experience
Sport Calgary videographer Elijah and I came to visit Future Stars Cricket practice to observe and participate in their practice. We came for their U5/U7 and U11 practice thus it was hard to participate in some of their activities that involved lots of interactions, for safety of participants. Although, I enjoyed having the opportunity to learn from their coaches to understand how they operate especially as a coach myself. First, they began with a warmup game of revenge tag that got all the kids moving and warming up their body. This is a game where every player is ‘it’ and the goal is to tag players without getting tagged themselves. Focusing on lateral movements and reaction time to avoid being tagged by other players. This is great warm up that subconsciously teaches kids movement without directly teaching them.
After warming up the coaches split both the younger and older group up to work on different skills. The older group worked on playing a team game that promoted passing and bowling to each teammate. It was a makeshift game that I can describe as a game as bowling handball. I loved that the coaches encourage movement of player when they did not have the ball in their hands and working as a team. The younger group worked on their bowling skills with the other coach to practice proper form to throw at the wooden pegs known as wickets. I was very impressed how well behaved and organized the kids were.
After a while I had the opportunity to join the older kids to practice my batting skills with them. I was given a cricket bat, ball and cone to practice with. Me and the kids were lined up horizontally with our cone placed on the ground and the ball placed on the cone. The coaches were, extremely encouraging and helpful, breaking down the movements of the swings, telling us to keep low by bending our knees and making sure our hands are on the right place. Our dominant hand would be on the top of the handle and our non-dominant is on the bottom, closer to the base of the handle. The best piece of advice the coaches gave me were to keep my bottom hand gripping the handle tight and the dominant hand loose. This allows for a controlled and straight swing. I almost felt like a natural!
I think the most enjoyable part of the experience was observing the interactions between coaches and players. With the coaches keeping the players engaged throughout. Every game or skill had a learning lesson for the youth. It may have been a blast for them, but it was subconsciously teaching them movements and skills that will be useful in their daily lives. Especially the team aspect in sport, that is so valuable in communication and teamwork. For success in the sport, you must work as a team to reach your desired goal and I really enjoy that aspect of it.
Check out my visit to Future Stars Cricket practice!
Physical Literacy in Cricket
I am a fourth year Physical Literacy student at Mount Royal University, and in this section, I will be covering the key contribution to the feature sport has to physical literacy. What is physical literacy you may ask?
"Physical literacy is the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge, and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life."
- The International Physical Literacy Association, May 2014
This is the general explanation of this idea, and my goal is connecting my learnings of physical literacy to the featured sport and physical activity.
How this sport contributes to Physical Literacy
Like many team sports, communication, teamwork as well as individual skill play a huge part in having the confidence in our movements. Swinging the bat is very different to compared to golf or baseball, thus the movement is not completely transferrable. Although tracking the ball and reaction time is a skill that is very transferable in different batting sports. Especially in catching the ball in the air and hitting hit, is a skill that can be applied to a multitude of sports. The teamwork and communication aspect contributes to someone’s physical literacy as it allows them to build within a community and grow with others. This allows to build confidence and competence in their ability.
Is it transferrable to baseball?
In this section I will talk about the age-old debate that cricket is like baseball or that the skills are transferrable. When I was younger, I was a huge Toronto Blue Jays fan, so naturally I enjoyed baseball. When I first stumbled upon cricket on television, I thought it was a baseball clone. Which is very amusing as cricket was created before baseball and their hitting mechanics are similar but very different. There are various positions and movements that make batting between the two hard to be a transferable skill. Yes, both require the player to swing the bat, but they have different focuses. First the way the ball is travelling at the batter is different so tracking the ball is a vastly different feeling. In baseball, the ball typically travels to the strike zone or around it. In cricket, the ball can come directly at you, and you can still attempt to hit it. Another aspect is that the ball bounces once in cricket so trying to identify movement of the ball is different as well. And lastly, the angle at which the batter is swinging from is different, so the movements are different enough that it is not a completely transferable skill. The biggest takeaway is do not expect a baseball player to be able to easily pick up cricket or vice versa, but the idea of swinging still helps.
Active for life
On my way to the practice, I was able to witness a couple of cricket games at different fields on a sunny and windy Friday evening. I could see many people gathered to enjoy the sport. It got me thinking about the community the sport brings to get people to be active and play this beloved sport. Having a community does wonders one’s mind and body to go out there and be active. Whether playing the sport competitively or recreationally, there is something to offer for everyone.
*For more information on the active for life model please check out the website*
Programs
Programs are offered for youth under 5(U5) to players over the age of 18. Each registration is broken down into age groups. The following age groups are U5, U7, U11, U13, U18 and over 18 groups. Sessions are broken up into 3-month sessions with the summer programs offering 24 sessions and the fall and winter sessions offering 18 sessions.
They also offer 1-on-1 sessions, small group sessions and team sessions at custom pricing.
Time commitment
Typically, sessions would happen from 1-2 times a week. Scheduling is at the discretion of the club and the age of the participant.
Risks?
Risks are always present when playing, it is important to be mindful of the surrounding environments and hazards. Whether it be a ball coming your way or a on coming collision from another player, accidents do happen, but it is important to be aware of your surrounding.
Thank you to Hamza and all the Future Star coaches for allowing us to join your practice and welcoming us in! And be sure to check out their website https://futurestarscricket.ca/ for more information.
Be sure to be on the look out for future articles and current one’s down below.