The perfect sport for your child.

Getting your child involved in sport is essential. It doesn’t matter what the sport is along as your child is engaging in physical activity. However, there is a sport which is so often overlooked, and that is a crying shame. The sport in question is cricket.

Cricket you say: yes cricket. Here’s why you should consider signing your child up to your local cricket club.

by barryskeates

Team Work 

The ability to work in a team is something that is still important in later life. If you cannot work in a team then sadly, you’re not much use. Cricket - like football - requires 11 players to make a team. From there everyone has their respective role: batter, bowler, fielder and wicketkeeper. Cricket really is the ultimate team building activity. If you were to go down to your local cricket club you would instantly see the camaraderie between the players. A cricket side is like family. You eat together, you play together and you hang out together. Most of these people are friends for life.

Respect

Cricket is very much so a gentleman game, although the recent furore around Kevin Pieterson’s autobiography would suggest otherwise. Both sets of players have a mutual respect for one another - something that cannot be said for other sports - while the two umpires adjudicating in the centre of the park command the utmost respect. Their decision is final, you cannot contest it and they warrant respect that a football referee could only wish to attain. This grounding in the basic principles is something that will last in your child forever. Also, the game teaches children how to take defeat on the chin. Parents on the side-lines abide the rules, there is no cussing on a cricket pitch; rugby and football cannot lay claim to that. When it comes to past-times of later life – such as enjoying the casual bet on sports or watching them in a group of friends – the values learned on the field could prove crucial in your child’s ability to lose graciously.

Non-Contact

Contact sports like football and rugby are hugely popular in Britain. Both, however, come with an element of danger – rugby especially. Many parents rightly don’t want to expose their children to contact sport at a young age. In rugby, the impact of a professional tackling a fellow professional is the equivalent of being hit by a truck going 75mph - the dangers posed are incredible. Cricket retains all of the fun but is significantly safer to partake.

Unisex

Gender divides in rugby and football, but in cricket there are no limitations on females playing until their older years; by then they will probably want to play in a side of their own gender.

Cricket is arguably the most beneficial team sport you can introduce your child to. It’s safe, it teaches teamwork and respect, and due to it being a summer sport your child shouldn’t have to be playing in the freezing cold.