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British Land Kids League gets bigger than ever
All British Land Kids League results will be available in the News Update section of this site.
Nearly 2,000 children will take part in the 2010 British Land Kids League – making it by far the biggest primary school cricket competition anywhere in Britain.
A total of 192 state primary schools will compete in 24 regional competitions throughout the 16 boroughs of inner London for the honour of taking part in the grand finals at the MCC Indoor School at Lord’s on March 23.
Now about to start its fourth year, the league is the brainchild of organisers Capital Kids Cricket and is sponsored by property giant British Land PLC.
At any one time, a quarter of a million children attend inner London’s state primary schools – by far the biggest concentration of young sporting potential anywhere in Europe – but a catastrophic decline during the 1980s left the region with less than two dozen schools still teaching any form of cricket.
After just 20 years’ existence, Capital Kids Cricket has boosted that number to more than 500.
The Grand finals will also include the presentation of ‘Tomorrow’s Superstar’ trophies to the four youngsters picked out by Capital Kids Cricket’s team of coaches as being the most likely to achieve top honours in ten years’ time and become natural successors to Ravi Bopara, CKC’s first ‘old boy’ to make it into England’s test team. The Tomorrow’s Superstars competition is this year sponsored by City of London law firm, CMS Cameron McKenna.
“We got Ravi started as a nine-year-old in his Newham primary school and we have another clutch of ‘old boys’ now beginning to make regular appearances at county level, including Billy Godleman at Middlesex and Maurice Chambers and Tony Palladino with Essex,” says Capital Kids’ general manager, John Sullivan. “But our main aim will always be to give London kids a chance to enjoy a wonderfully friendly game at whatever level they choose.”
“The standard of these ten-year-olds – both boys and girls – has to be seen to be believed and just would not have been possible until we came along to help them get started.”
The start of the 2010 British Land Kids Cricket League coincides with the 20th birthday of Capital Kids Cricket and both landmarks will be celebrated with a grand launch in the Lord Mayor of Westminster’s parlour on Wednesday, January 13. Among the guests will be mayors and senior representatives from all other inner London boroughs, cricket celebrities and children from Canonbury School, Islington, winners of the 2009 British Land League.
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