James Anderson and Emma Lamb head back to school with Chance to Shine
To showcase the work of Chance to Shine, Lancashire’s James Anderson went back to his state primary school, accompanied by Thunder batter Emma Lamb, to help deliver a session with a Year 3 class.
Ahead of a huge summer for English cricket, England Men’s star bowler James Anderson and England Women’s batter Emma Lamb took it back to basics visiting Anderson’s former primary school with Chance to Shine.
The pair helped coaches deliver a session to a class of year 3 children at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School, Burnley, followed by a Q&A session and plenty of time for autographs.
The England and Wales Cricket Board in partnership with Lord’s Taverners and Chance to Shine, invests over £4m a year to deliver cricket to thousands of primary schools and hundreds of thousands of children.
This year, cricket will be taken directly to more than 55,000 extra children from underserved communities, as well as those attending special educational needs and disability schools.
“It brings back memories of where everything started being back here. We played a little bit of quick cricket [at St Mary’s] back in the day but nothing that would develop your skills.” said James Anderson.
“Seeing the kids today get proper coaching is really amazing. In this area in particular and in schools like these, they don’t often have that standard of coaching or the facilities to encourage kids to play cricket. It’s brilliant that Chance to Shine are doing something and are able to help.”
St Mary’s, is one of the 4,200 state primary, special and secondary schools Chane to Shine work to deliver cricket to across England and Wales. Supported by funding from the ECB, they alone create opportunities for over half a million children to play cricket each year targeting children who face economic challenges through their schools programme.
Emma Lamb commented, “I don’t feel like I had loads of opportunities when I was younger so making sure we give every single child an opportunity now is really important to get involved and get active.
“It is important the game is accessible to everyone. Even if you don’t love watching it, playing it is a totally different thing and making sure kids this age are really active is so important. Providing an opportunity to have a go at playing it is really nice to see.”