Tuesday 4 July 2017 17:02, UK
Award-winning coach Saba Nasim BEM believes the Chance to Shine charity is succeeding in 'taking cricket to the masses'.
Research commissioned by Chance to Shine and Yorkshire Tea indicates more than three million young people - almost half of whom are girls - have enjoyed a taste of the sport through the independent charity's grassroots initiatives.
Figures suggest 44 per cent of girls aged between eight and 16 have played cricket in the last year, with more than a third of those doing so at school. Almost a quarter of girls surveyed said they had never played cricket before being introduced to the game by Chance to Shine, which began life as part of the Cricket Foundation.
"The findings don't surprise me because the breadth of Chance to Shine's work is huge," Nasim told Sky Sports.
"Not only do they send coaches into schools - I've been to over myself 50 through Chance to Shine - they also do a wide range of other activities focusing on life skills including employability workshops.
"I'm a little surprised by the number of people I've met in schools who are still unaware of the work Chance to Shine do, especially because they are a nationwide charity who just want to grow the game and get young people playing cricket."
Nasim was a newly-qualified ECB Level 2 coach when she teamed up with Chance to Shine through the Essex County Cricket Board to help boost the number of girls playing cricket in the East London area.
"I had been playing - and still play for - Wanstead Ladies, and myself and a team-mate were both recruited because there is also a shortage female coaches in the area," she explained.
"The number of girls playing cricket in East London was also relatively small, especially because there is potentially quite a big talent pool there and a big South Asian community.
"We focused specifically on getting more girls playing cricket. We printed leaflets and went into schools, doing free taster sessions at lunchtimes and encouraging the girls to come and play with us out of school.
"Slowly we started picking up numbers for our Chance to Shine street programme which I run every Wednesday evening at Wanstead Leisure Centre and we now have more than 70 girls on our project playing regularly.
"It's not just about talent identification, it's about taking to game to the masses. We have some girls playing with us who'd never picked up a bat before and didn't really know beforehand what cricket was about.
"It was about introducing them to the game and giving them the chance to at least try it once. Some of them have moved on to hard-ball club cricket and we've even put a few forward for Essex trials, but the original idea was just to promote the game at grassroots level."
The 2017 Women's World Cup here in England has also created a buzz among young female players, according to qualified solicitor Nasim, whose East London initiative won the Chance to Shine Project of the Year award in 2014.
"Wasim Khan [Leicestershire's CEO] kindly arranged some tickets for our players for the Pakistan v Sri Lanka match, so on July 15 I'm taking a coach load of 40 girls from London up to Leicester to watch the game.
"They're all so excited to be going to a World Cup game, especially the older ones who have been following the tournament closely and have been Whatsapping each other about it."
Khan is the former CEO of the Cricket Foundation and spearheaded Chance to Shine's work before it gained independent charitable status in 2015.
The former Warwickshire batsman paid tribute to the raft of England Women's internationals who played a pivotal role in the exponential growth of girls' cricket in the era before central contracts.
Khan told Sky Sports: "When Mike Gatting was at the ECB - along with [head of England Women's cricket] Clare Connor and myself - we looked at how we can bring the girls in
"We had contracts for the girls to go into schools and coach. They loved it and their passion and commitment was incredible.
"In 2009 after they won the World T20, they were back in schools two days later coaching again. It just tells you how important they felt cricket was and their role in inspiring the next generation to play the game."
