In the generation that has passed since the golden summer of 2005   England’s cricketers  have  gone from being mainly  the products of  state schools  to being mainly not. One  look at the decline and  it looks like the state-educated may be nearing the end of the line, talent without the right schooling in cricket not enough.

A problem, about which it seems there is quite a lot of agreement. But one prone to exaggeration as well?  The 20%  count from the 2025/6 Ashes is of Ben Stokes (who moved to England when 12), Matt Potts and Mark Wood, three players out of the 15 who appeared in the series. Include in  Harry Brook and Joe Root who went to state  schools before getting scholarships and the % goes up, include them out and count  appearances rather than heads and it  goes down.

Tweakable stats, although  players with a scholarship since Ashley Giles in 2005 number 11  (of 107 in all).  Players privately educated younger, older players less so now  is also the pattern  in county cricket, where the decline in the state educated  in the last decade has been stark.

98 players under 25 in 2015, 52 last summer, and with a history of decision-making  at the top of the game that  might be described as  Grassroots Last  the decline may very well have further to go. More players coming from ethnic minority backgrounds might to a degree help keep the numbers positive, as might some  counties, but the big question now is how much gets invested  to impact the 2030s?

Data from Cricket Archive