Freddie Fintoff’s Field of Dreams series starts with the comment that to play cricket you have to be lucky or privileged, better if it wasn’t like that, then a clip from the 2005 Ashes. Luck, or at least family influences important in ‘getting cricket’, making a career out of the game: FoD makes clear Freddie’s career owed much to his father, two of his teammates that summer were related to Test cricketers, five others had a brother or father who played for a county side.
In 2024 around one in five who played for the 18 FCC were related to someone who play(ed) for one of the 18, or play(ed) first-class cricket elsewhere, more than one in three if the marker is premier league club or above. Family a formative influence but also no doubting the big generational change in educational backgrounds.
| 2005 | 2024 | |
| English players | 298 | 371 |
| Relatives who play(ed) FC/18FCC | 51 | 73 |
| …played for the 2s/NatC/PLclub | 44 | 63 |
| Ind School | 90 | 207 |
| Rel FC/18FCC, or Ind School | 114/269 (42%) | 232/361 (64%) |
| …under 25s | 54/126 (43%) | 112/156 (72%) |
| Compiled from Cricket Archive, Cricinfo | No educational info 29 | No educational info 10 |
The players that have been starting out in the 2020s have mainly come from families of county cricketers, a truly tiny % of the general population, and the privately educated; those that are born in to it and those that can pay to get there. By 2030 many starting out then will be lights that set off towards the end of the last decade, when the cumulative effects of all things paywall era were being felt; given the numbers here is cricket going to be a public school profession for them?
It might be. Taking a figure of 150 + players for the under-25s then at least some with different backgrounds could reasonably be expected, although in the Blast last summer the figure for the under-25s was (counting appearances) 80%, for 8 of the counties 100%; markers for where an incoming tide was.
There is south-north divide of sorts which may be a limiting influence, but the long-term rise shows no sign of decline, 155/326 were independently educated in 2019, and may be accelerating. VAT on independent schools to help? More club cricket a better route for developing the most talented and with it a re-balancing from south to north, it might take a few years but stranger things.
| All players (under25s) % | 2024 | 2019 |
| Surrey | 93 (100) | 71 |
| Hampshire | 78 (89) | 63 |
| Somerset | 78(82) | 59 |
| Sussex | 75(92) | 76 |
| Durham | 42(57) | 43 |
| Lancashire | 40(54) | 18 |
Players who attended an independent school and/or have a relative that play(ed) 18FCC/FC cricket
Overall not great, much of it a legacy from a generation at the end of the last century who forgot the transfer of school playing fields, followed on in this one by some forgetful cricket administrators. Money now consequences later, into which pattern in 2025 equity sales in The 100; funds from the future to pay the players more, take the competition up-market. While enough might be being done to widen the playing base how, if at all, it will impact those who make it to the top is another question.