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Accounts co-ordinator Chris Smith<br />
Business development<br />
executive George Fitzmaurice<br />
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WHY AN A–Z GUIDE?<br />
WHY SCHOOLS<br />
CRICKET? WHY NOW?<br />
Andy Afford<br />
Managing<br />
director,<br />
The Cricketer<br />
DEAR READER,<br />
Since reintroducing<br />
schools<br />
cricket more<br />
formally to<br />
The Cricketer<br />
in 2013, we<br />
have had a consistently strong<br />
response to the coverage from<br />
you.<br />
Typically, people like the idea of<br />
an early look at potential future<br />
stars. Lots of you comment on the<br />
evocative photography. More still<br />
have an opinion on the relative<br />
quality of the cricket played. Safe<br />
to say, it has inspired healthy<br />
debate.<br />
As I am guessing most of you<br />
would expect, our list constitutes<br />
a high percentage of public<br />
schools. It is not exclusively so,<br />
but it has ended up that way. And<br />
not by design, I might add. And<br />
that the last Test of the summer<br />
saw England field six players who<br />
were privately educated goes a<br />
long way to establishing a further<br />
reason why.<br />
Ultimately, this is where<br />
considerable investment is<br />
being made in the game in this<br />
country. By parents. By young<br />
cricketers. And by the schools<br />
themselves. Investment in<br />
coaching. Investment in facilities.<br />
Investment in time dedicated to<br />
the pursuit of excellence. Like<br />
it or not, this now constitutes<br />
the game’s modern-day nursery<br />
slopes. Especially with<br />
weekend club cricket under<br />
the ever-increasing pressures<br />
of modern life.<br />
That is the context, but what<br />
have we actually done to put this<br />
all together? Well, the process<br />
itself was simple, if not all that<br />
straightforward. The first thing<br />
was to draw down a longlist of<br />
around 450 likely names and,<br />
from there, derive a shortlist of<br />
what we believed constituted the<br />
very best 150 cricketing schools<br />
in the country. From this we<br />
settled on the final 100 and put<br />
them in alphabetical order for no<br />
other reason than they all have<br />
something equally positive and<br />
unique to offer.<br />
One final comment on that<br />
final list: we fully understand<br />
that the number 100 is in itself<br />
a pretty arbitrary figure. But as<br />
in all these things, it offered a<br />
starting point and, indeed, an<br />
end. It could have been 111, 121<br />
or even 127. Easily. But the reason<br />
we decided it couldn’t made us<br />
work that little bit harder for you.<br />
This, we believe, constitutes the<br />
establishments that offer in their<br />
own way – or in a few cases every<br />
way – cricketing excellence. From<br />
programme design to building<br />
design; exclusive setting to<br />
inclusive selection; historic past<br />
to glorious future.<br />
With this list came the<br />
opportunity to agree a few<br />
additional awards. These are for<br />
places we believe are outstanding<br />
in their way. They will reveal<br />
themselves as you work your way<br />
through the supplement.<br />
Geographically, the list runs the<br />
length and breadth of this great<br />
land (see page 65). We are very<br />
proud of the ambition shown by<br />
the project. We hope you find the<br />
results equally fascinating.<br />
thecricketer.com / 3