Clearing the boundary
The second annual Prince’s Trust and Chance to
shine festival highlighted the power of sport to transform young
lives.
Cricket is a gentleman’s game, they say, and it’s certainly
transforming some young people into real gentlemen (and
ladies).
This year’s Chance to shine festival clearly
revealed how much of an impact the team sport can make in giving
young people focus and motivation. It unearthed some real talent
too!
The day-long event was held at the Marylebone
Cricket Club Indoor School, at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground in
London, for young people from Prince’s Trust xl clubs across the
country.
Besides playing against other xl clubs, the
young people also had the opportunity to take part in a Q&A
session with ex-Warwickshire cricketer and Prince’s Trust
Ambassador Paul Smith, who also announced the winner of the
Twenty20 t-shirt design competition.
Emma Chambers, the xl Adviser at The Duston
School in the East Midlands, had no doubts about the benefits of
the sessions.
“From the moment I said to my group that they
were going to participate in this cricket session at Lord’s, they
became more engaged in the xl qualification,” she said.
“Though they didn’t get along well in the
classroom, on the field, it was like they were a completely
different group – working together and helping each other out in
the technical issues they had with bowling and batting.
"For me, the highlight of the programme was
returning to school after the day at Lord’s and looking at my
students and noticing how much of a difference six weeks had made
with their social interaction.”
xl cricket takes young people beyond the
classroom and teaches them leadership skills, discipline, teamwork,
patience and gets them active.You can’t get better than
that.
- Paul Smith,
ex-Warwickshire cricketer
Home and away
Fourteen-year-old Mehrab Khan moved to England
last year from Afghanistan. He didn’t speak English, but he did
understand cricket.
Over his year with The Prince’s Trust, he started
to develop his language skills and initiated conversations,
particularly during the xl sessions, when he would help and support
the other students.
For the festival day at Lord’s, he was given the
opportunity to lead the group by being appointed the team’s
captain.