Four-year increase of 40% in the number of kids who play cricket regularly
With the nation’s interest in cricket dramatically increasing for the next month with the cricket world cup, the latest BMRB Sport data reveals that we may not have to wait too long time for the next batch of cricketers to represent the country as more kids are playing cricket on a regular basis.
Today, 420,000 11-19-year-olds play cricket on a weekly basis. This is a 40% increase from 2003 when approaching 300,000 kids would play cricket every week. Furthermore, when looking at adult cricketers, the number who play regularly has increased from 300,000 in 2003 to almost 500,000 adults today.
James Smythe, head of BMRB Sport: “Any successful sport attracts new interest and the success of the 2005 Ashes series is an example of this, however the key is retaining it.”
“Cricket has a combined strategy of international success and domestic grassroots development that is clearly paying dividends, and serves as a best practice example to other sports.”
Peter Ackerley, head of development for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) welcomes BMRB findings which he believes testify to the success of the development programmes that the ECB has been running, particularly, its Young Players Development Programme which has been targeting clubs and schools to bring on young talent and increase the popularity of the game. This is, says Ackerley, a spectacular increase which clearly demonstrates the popularity of the game amongst young people and shows that the game, as a product, is appealing to this age group
Editors’ notes
The BMRB Sport data is from the GB TGI and Youth TGI survey. The GB TGI survey is based on a sample size of c.25,000 and the Youth TGI survey is based on the sample size of c.6,000 interviews across GB per annum. The questionnaires are placed with selected respondents at the end of BMRB’s Omnibus survey. BMRB is one of the largest market research agencies in the UK and is a key operating company within the KMR Group. For more, visit www.bmrb.co.uk. KMR is a division of the Millward Brown Group, part of Kantar, the information, insight and consultancy arm of WPP. For more, visit www.kmr-group.com.
The Youth TGI survey contains information on media, leisure activities, shopping, finance, important issues, attitude statements and many other categories.
Contact
For further information:
Russell Budden, BMRB TGI, Tel: 020 4498 4094
