Wednesday 12 January 2011

From the Ashes

A sport which I don’t talk about much on the blog is cricket. Looking at cricket on a global scale I think the quality of the sport and the image of the sport has gone down in recent years but it is great to see England bucking that trend. This winter for the first time in 24 years England won a series in Australia and retained The Ashes.

Now you may think well the Ashes isn’t a big competition and doesn’t prove anything as it is a competition all about two countries but if you add this to the successes the England Cricket team have had in the last twelve months it really is impressive.

Since England’s Ashes win there has been a surge in people buying tickets for their matches in 2011 when they return home which is great to see. The media attention these last couple of months have been phenomenal as well which has done wonders for the English cricket scene I think.

The only down side to all the hype has been due to it being winter here in the UK and PE syllabuses here it will be hard to capitalize on this hype and convert it in to more children playing the sport. I just hope that the memories of this Ashes series won’t fade too quickly and that when the summer comes more young people will take up the sport.

The one thing the Ashes has done this winter is shown again how sport can give the country a feel good factor, just imagine if we do well in the Olympics in 2012.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com