The cricket curse facing private schoolboys

You can’t imagine a 16-year-old Michael Clarke having to miss a net session to rehearse for The Mikado, or make sure he did his euphonium practice. Clarke went to a sports high school and his parents ran an indoor cricket centre. He had the time, the inclination and the facilities to hit balls for hours on end.

via The cricket curse facing private schoolboys – The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Interesting statistics on the number of state versus private school kiddies to play test cricket for Australia (and interestingly, the stats are quite different in Pommy-land).

Greg Chappell underscores the importance of playing against adults at a young age. There are comments regarding the shorter seasons in private school comps, the weaker level of competition, and the very good facilities (ie the pampering).

My own take on sport at private schools is that by ensuring that all sport is school-related, there is not only the problems outlined here at an elite level, but when students leave school, they are not connected to local sporting clubs and so sport finishes when school does. This is exacerbated by the lack of clubs and societies support at universities and the lack of active campus culture and available playing fields at places like Swinburne.

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