Contribution
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms McVey. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Max Wilkinson) on securing this important debate. I agree with him that cricket is a fantastic sport. I also love cricket. Where we disagree is that my drink of choice when I go to watch cricket is cider, and I think that the test format is the supreme format of the game, although I appreciate that people enjoy other formats.
I am proud to represent a constituency that has several cricket clubs, including Stockport cricket club, founded in 1855; Heaton Mersey cricket club, founded in 1879; and Heaton Mersey Village cricket club. Before the parliamentary boundary review I also represented Offerton cricket club, which is now represented by my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Lisa Smart), and which also has a rich history.
I do not want to repeat the points made by the hon. Member for Cheltenham, but participation in cricket could be a lot better, particularly among young people from lower-income backgrounds, and young people who do not go to private schools or boarding schools. The 2023 report of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket warned of an elitist culture
“driven…by the lack of access…in state schools”.
They reported that, at the time, 58% of England players had been privately educated. The data will have changed over the last two years but so much more could be done.
I wish to declare an interest as a member of the all-party parliamentary group for cricket. I place that on record. I love cricket, but as a Labour party member, who many people would call quite left wing, some people say to me that cricket is not really a sport enjoyed on the left. I make the argument that the majority of people who play and watch cricket across the world are from countries in south Asia and in the Caribbean islands. Many countries in Africa also enjoy cricket. We should make sure that cricket is introduced to young people in schools at all levels across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. There is a lot more to be done.
I know that the ECB funds many programmes, and that Sport England supports several cricket programmes, but I do not think it is enough. The England and Wales Cricket Board announced a £2 million investment in programmes aimed at engaging black and south Asian communities and state-educated children. That is good, but £2 million will not scratch the surface in the 4,000-plus secondary schools in the UK. It amounts to about £480 per school if shared around. That is not much. There are also reports in the media—hon. Members can look them up if they are interested—that the latest deal between the ECB and Sky for television broadcasting rights is approximately £220 million. That is a lot of money. I was just speaking to one particular member of the House Service before I came into this debate, because I know he enjoys cricket. He said that the TV licence fee that most of us pay should contribute towards enabling people to watch live cricket games. A lot of people are excluded because they cannot afford the £35 to £40 per month to watch Sky Sports. A lot more could be done, and it should not be left to the Government. The ECB should be doing more, and Sky could be doing a lot more. We need to have a genuine debate about including more people from low-income backgrounds in cricket.
I want to finish on a more historical point. I have not mentioned this since I was elected to this House about six years ago, but according to data from the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, the ACS, the earliest known reference to the sport being played in Lancashire has been found in the Manchester Journal, dated Saturday 1 September 1781. It concerned an 11-a-side match played the previous Monday, 27 August, at Brinnington moor—Brinnington is the ward I live in—between a team of printers and one representing the villages of Haughton and Bredbury, who were the winners. As Bredbury was in Cheshire, that account is the earliest reference to cricket in that county, going back to 1781, which is quite special.
There are so many fantastic sports available across the board these days, but cricket is so special. I do not think there is a sport that is more English than cricket. So much more could be done to encourage more young people and people from various backgrounds to play cricket.