Cricket has a spin-off in class

Cricket helps pupils' behaviour in school, suggests report

Cricket can help curb bad behaviour in schools and improve concentration in the classroom, researchers have found.

The Institute of Youth Sport at Loughborough University found pupils given the chance to play cricket often brought its values into the classroom.

The researchers were assessing a scheme, run by the Cricket Foundation, which aims to revitalise the sport in state primary and secondary schools.

In 2007, 1,276 schools in England and Wales used the Chance to Shine scheme.

The programme works with cricket clubs to provide 50 hours of coaching and competition for each school in the summer term.

The scheme is raising �25m from the private sector and the government has pledged to match the money raised.

'Improved attitudes'

Dr Ruth Jeanes, research associate at the Institute of Youth Sport, said the study used interviews and surveys of coaches, teachers and pupils to reach its conclusions.

"Cricket particularly has been seen as a gentleman's sport and it's played with particular codes of conduct that maybe we don't see in other sports," she said.

"What the teachers and researchers found is that through improved attitudes and behaviour within PE, teachers have then been able to engage more effectively with pupils when they've got back into the classroom.

"So they've found a way in, a way to relate to pupils, to talk to them when they've got back into the classroom."

Director of the Cricket Foundation Nick Gandon said: "Chance to Shine is a 10-year campaign which we launched in 2005 when fewer than 10% of state schools played five or more cricket matches each year.

"It aims to reach one-third of all sate schools in England and Wales to give children the special benefits of playing competitive cricket and we're delighted that the Institute of Youth Sport report confirms our success in doing this."

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