Summer is here and so is the Cricket season – Cricket for Juniors with All Stars Cricket

Cricket has always been there in our family, and though I was impressed with dad’s trophies and wins during his childhood cricket times, I wasn’t sportive at all. Except for ring ball, I hardly played any sports and despite dad’s inspiring Cricket stories, I had never watched Cricket until dad managed to get hold of a second-hand TV in 1996 to watch the world cup hoping India would be in finals. Did I watch it atleast then!?, well… that’s another story!

The cricket story continued with DH, who eats, sleeps and breaths Cricket! There were so many days he got stuck in Traffic when I badly wanted to discuss some burning family issues due to our inter-religious marriage!  – you know what exactly “that traffic” means! right!? There were days we watched big stars play ignoring the hottest weather! 

Being so mad about Cricket, DH tried his best to influence DD1 with his fantastic Cricket skills, but has failed due to many reasons – first being a sport with more boys involved, , Cricket attracted fewer girls in our area and she could hardly find any girls in the team and never showed any interest in Cricket!, and next to it, there were hardly a very few cricket clubs around our area when she started playing at 5! Eventually, she loves Badminton and being her favourite sport and due to time constraints, we never thought about Cricket for her again!

However, DH is not ready to give up entirely and now trying his best to influence DD2 who is a budding star, loving to explore sports and Ballet! This time, for a change, I feel he would be highly likely successful as the England and Wales Cricket Board is taking the initiative to influence kids on trying out Cricket this summer.

The brand-new programme called All Stars Cricket would give a fun, first-time experience of cricket to the kids aged 5 -8. They can learn; catching, throwing, hitting a moving ball and teamwork – all whilst making new friends in a safe and inclusive environment.

A week before, I had the opportunity to be at the launch event along with few other Mumsnet bloggers including Megan from TrulyMadlyKids, Louise from BirdsAndLillies to get to know more about the programme, the plans and goals, and how it would benefit the kids. 

To be honest, I am not a fan of cricket (at all), but I still do watch the match (once in a while) and there are days Hubby just gets out of the house with TV remote in his pocket when the Cricket is on! (It’s NEVER by purpose, he just gets too involved with the match that he doesn’t like to give a chance to others to change channel). 

It was too exciting and actually a little nervous to have a chance to meet those stars whom I have admired only on the screen and I kept sending the pictures from the event to DH. 🙂 

It was too exciting to meet Michael Vaughan who introduced the crowd to All Stars Cricket and detailed about the plans and goals of the programme and how it is going to help children to get out the house and have time away from the gadgets and internet! 

We also had the chance to hear from Lauren Winfield and Johnny Bairstow about how much they love playing Cricket and how they developed the skills from childhood, and it was especially nice to hear from Lauren who enjoys playing the tournaments and feels proud about women coming up in cricket teams. 

All Stars Cricket would definitely give a good opportunity for the kids to get active, be social and help the families enjoy some family time together while still benefiting from the cricket programme. There are also a parent- child sessions so if you have any plans to learn cricket, it is the time! 

The programme is delivered across England and Wales at over 1,500 fully accredited All Stars Cricket centres. All girls and boys are welcome, and each registered child will receive a pack of cricket goodies including a cricket bat, ball, backpack, water bottle, personalised shirt and cap to keep so that they can continue their love of cricket when they go home.

The programme starts during the second week of May and will run for 8 weeks with just 40£ for registration which I feel is a very reasonable, affordable price to pay. If you want to know more about All Stars Cricket, please do visit the ECB website where you can find all the information about the programme and the centres that are hosting the programme during summer. 

Having read my experience and thoughts so far, are you a fan of cricket!? Do your child(ren) play cricket!? Do you think All Stars Cricekt Programme would interest you to enroll your child!? 

We would love to hear from you. 

I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity. I have received a voucher in return for writing this post