Kent go European with French school visits

Blog en français aussi

Kent’s Coach Education Manager Richard Harvey has been doing his best to spread the word of Kent Cricket, travelling to France to coach children and promote the game.

Our resident Australian recently spent two days in Paris giving almost 200 students and teachers a taste of the sport.

Some 75 groups from throughout Europe including France, Germany and the Netherlands have already visited the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence this year to have a go at cricket as part of their English educational tours.

One French group enjoyed their 90-minute session with Richard so much earlier in the year that they organised for him to attend a sports expo at their school to give other schools the chance to see what the game was all about.

He said the trip was a success with more schools booking to visit Canterbury next year as well as the students having a great time.

“Obviously the biggest challenge is that the children have not been exposed to the game and they don’t understand it – there is no culture of playing cricket unlike England or Australia.

“It’s another planet. Not another sport, not another country, but another planet.

“The look of astonishment on their faces when they were told cricket is the world’s second most popular sport after football is priceless.

“Cricket is played in France but most didn’t know it.

“The key for me is to not complicate it and most importantly let them have fun and lots of it while learning the basics of all aspects of the game.

“I do a lot of ‘team’ based drills throughout the sessions and they have proved to be a hit with the students and teachers alike.

“I am just thrilled to be able to raise the awareness of the game and see so many children having fun.”

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Le responsable d’éducation de l’équipe de Kent, Richard Harvey, a récemment passé deux jours à Paris pour apprendre le cricket à presque 200 écoliers et leurs professeurs.

Cette année environ 75 groupes d’écoliers de partout en Europe sont venus au terrain de cricket “Spitfire, St Lawrence” pour jouer au cricket.

Un groupe français a décidé d’inviter Richard en France pour que il puisse faire des démonstrations de cricket pour les élèves d’autres écoles.

Richard pense que sa visite s’est bien passée – surtout q’encore plus d’écoles se sont enregistrées pour des sessions d’entraînement au terrain “Spitfire”.

Richard dit « Le fait que les écoliers ne conaissent et ne comprennent pas le cricket et mon plus gros défi. En France il n’y a pas la mème tradition du cricket qu’en Angleterre ou q’en Australie.

– Il y a des équipes de cricket en France mais la plupart des Français ne le savent pas.

– À mon avis le plus important est que les jeunes s’amuses et qu’ils apprennent l’esprit du jeu.

– Je suis tellement content que je puisse apprendre le cricket a tant de gens, et les voir s’amuser ».

Blast is back! Kent Spitfires get their T20 campaign underway with a home tie against Somerset at The Spitfire Ground, St. Lawrence THIS SATURDAY, 20th July from 19:00

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