Well done to Gary Mason and Simon Aldis posting such a good piece in The Cricket Files. It builds and echoes on what I wrote about in The Cricketer in April 2025. ECB is uber cautious on access to windfalls, in reality selling at a P/E of 7.5x is hardly that. www.linkedin.com/posts/fanos-...

ECB to fund a PhD into 'Addressing Selection Bias & Injury Risk in Youth Cricket: A Growth & Maturation Research Programme'... FINALLY!!! onemoresummer.co.uk/post/ecb-to-...

Have a read of this. It is a fascinating & well researched look at the finances of the Hundred non-host counties. It is very bleak. ‘The windfall makes Non-Host counties solvent. It does not make them competitive. It is a lifeline, not a launchpad.’ substack.com/home/post/p-...

Do Professional County Academies seek out critical feedback? 🏏 onemoresummer.co.uk/post/do-prof...

Calling all cricket coaches: Do you use ANY of these techniques in promoting LEARNING? 🏏 youtu.be/GMsmB2CMrtE?...

Similar to the senior side in the Ashes, only 1 State School player in the men's England U19 World Cup final team. #U19WorldCup #U19WorldCup2026 #U19WorldCupFinal

A review of Ian Renshaw & Stephen Rollnick's Dynamic Coaching - a playbook for cricket coaches. #coaching #CricketCoaching #BookReview

Do better results at men's England U19 World Cups lead to those players playing more for the Senior team? 🤔

I see the proportion of Somerset Women games away from the County Ground will increase slightly In 2025, 3 of Somerset's 15 home games were at outgrounds (20%, 2 at Taunton Vale, 1 at Exmouth) In 2026, 4 of 14 home games will be at outgrounds (29%, 2 at Vale, 2 at Exmouth) 1/7

#RelativeAgeEffects in men's England U19 World Cup Squads have increased since 2020 📅🏏🏆

Forget the Ashes, here's the real quiz... Glamorgan’s return to Division One proves that leadership, culture, and perseverance can overcome the unique challenges of Welsh cricket. First published in Wisden Cricket Monthly. open.substack.com/pub/jeffthom...

When will there be 50% extra training to state school kids on talent pathways? The recent Equity in Cricket (2025) report describes this as 'a notable area of progress' but its currently not for all age groups, not necessarily 50%, and possibly not yet at all pro counties...

On the CRICKETher Weekly: * Syd gets on board the WBBL Cane Train * The importance of the ICC’s Emerging Nations Trophy * Why can’t England play in-swing? * Who will make their England debut in the next 12 months? * Raf reviews the ECB’s latest Equity Report

ECB Equity in Cricket report & the MCCF Hub programme show little progress since ICEC. 🏏 70% more hubs yet ONLY *6* more players on England & Wales talent pathways! onemoresummer.co.uk/post/the-ecb...

ECB State of Equity in Cricket 2025 Since last year there are LESS state school girls at CAG & EPP level, fewer boys at EPP but a 25% increase in state schooled boys in Academies (now 40%). At professional level no change. 👀 www.ecb.co.uk/news/4400947

This, from Loren Anderson via Substack, perfectly encapsulates why I believe in the #EcologicalDynamics approach in #coaching #sportscoaching

France has done this, too. Brilliant idea

Jewish figures across the globe call on UN and world leaders to sanction Israel

Do Counties publish County Pathway Demographic Data? 🏏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 i.e. are we are on track improving state school representation? Afaik* only 1 Professional county, Sussex, and 1 National county, Wiltshire, have published this data for 2024 & 2025. Credit to them! ...

61% of these players are born Sep-Nov* #RelativeAgeEffects Every year these selections are heavily biased towards early born players. * 11 of 19. 1 date of birth unknown.

I see England have avoided a shock defeat to Bangladesh in the World Cup thanks to a typically gritty and determined partnership between Heather Knight and the third umpire. #CWC25 🏏

In the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏏 men’s current Player Pathway you are 3x more likely to be selected if born in Sep-Oct (Q1) than Jun-Aug (Q4) & 40 of the 51 players attended an independent school. *Based on U19s, Lions & Ashes Test squads n=51. #RelativeAgeEffects

Portland is war-torn only if you tear it with war

Trollstigen, Norway. #Photography #BlueSkyArtShow #TheRoad #EastCoastKin

🚨 This is serious. Ex Reform UK leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, 52, pleads guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for making pro-Russia statements in the European Parliament when serving as a UKIP MEP.

When you carefully construct an organisational structure and #culture - very much the same thing - that ensures your #class always ‘win’ (as witnessed in English #cricket), these outcomes are inevitable. But, you know, ‘stop the boats’ etc. etc. 🤦🏻‍♂️ www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

fft education datalab calling on DfE to take relative age discrimination seriously? ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2025/09/dfe-...

England U19 Squad for 🇮🇪🇧🇩🏏 RAE 2x born in the first half of the year (12:6) 83% Indy schooled 83% selected at U15 national pathway (Bunbury) ecb.co.uk/news/4354459....

Relative Age Effects for Super 4s Women 2025 🏏♀️ RAE in the women's pathway appears to be much MORE of an issue than in the men's.

Relative Age Effects for Super 4s Men 2025 (Regional U18s) 🏏 NO RAE overall: Q1 20%, Q2 28%, Q3 28%, Q4 24%. 48:52 By Half Year n=53* (*7 unknown)

Important piece by Isa Guha. Not going to link as I don't want to single the player out, but this week I saw a social media post by a county where they were introducing 3 new players and the confidence in the body language of the South Asian player compared to her 2 white counterparts was striking.

#TFTD Until coaches CHANGE their current selection criteria then well evidenced bias of relative, biological & training age will continue. The best intervention we can encourage is a shift in MINDSET from just selecting the ‘best’ players to represent the 'most competitive’ team.

And for the 2nd Test... 9:5 by half year (7 Q1) 13 of 14 are independently schooled. The only state school player was not at Bunbury (U15) but 11 of 13 independents were.

RAE & School profile of England U19 Test Squad 2025 🏏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿n=15 9:6 by half year. 11 of 15 independent schooled 10 of 11 indy school played Bunbury (U15); only 1 of 4 state did State schooled higher RAE 3:1 by half year www.ecb.co.uk/news/4306204...

From Research to Practice: Harnessing Growth and Maturation 📽️ with Prof. Sean Cumming & PhD(c) Rob Mulcahy 👍 youtu.be/PYmhySEAkhU?...

#TFTD Nearly all pro cricketers are signed at age 18 from an Academy. The % of state educated players in Academies is 32% YET this rises to 50% for full professionals. Do state educated rookie players have a higher retention rate than those independently educated & if so why?

#TFTD Unpopular opinion: Early engagement programmes, Chance to Shine, MCC Foundation Hubs, extra training for state school County Age Group players, state school knockout competitions etc are NOT going to significantly change the % of state school professionals within 10 years.

England U19 Warm Up Match 23.06.2025 (n=27) #RelativeAgeEffects

More evidence as to why the ECB is right to trial and further develop the use of Age Ordered Numbered Bibs to mitigate Relative Age Effects. Perhaps this could also be done in the Women and Girls pathway which also has significant RAEs? www.frontiersin.org/journals/spo...

Keeping Girls in the Game: Rethinking Training for Girls in Puberty How education, and adjustments to training and expectations during puberty can help girls stay in sport, thrive long-term, and unlock their full potential. myranorge.substack.com/p/puberty?

When someone wants to point out the impact of privilege on sporting achievements every tier of professional cricket has case studies. It makes a mockery of the grass roots game. Time to bring in selection criteria for all standards to ensure representation at all levels.

#TFTD Some counties don’t rely on indy school players, which nationally brings the indy player average for Academy players down to 68%. Otherwise it would be around 80-90%. Has the Govt invested in state schools in these counties? No & yet…

#TFTD Anthropometric (e.g. height, weight) differences between birth quarters are inversely proportional to the level of RAE🤔 Lower RAE/unselected groups have higher anthropometric differences Higher RAE/selected groups have lower anthropometric differences/are more homogenous

ICYMI New Paper: Relative Age Effects in Women's & Girl's Cricket ♀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏏 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Normally in development environments female RAE is lower than for males but in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 cricket it’s higher.

The art of coaching-David Bowie, Bob, Dylan, Mick O' Dwyer, Marvin Gaye, Rick Ruben, Gregg Popovich, The Beach Boys, James Gibson's ecological psychology, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Puskás, van Morrison A remarkable article by Ciaran O Sullivan www.irishexaminer.com/sport-column...

Does discrimination by age (a protected characteristic) only count when the context is for 'years' (decades?) or can it be within year, in terms of months... or birthdates? 🤔 onemoresummer.co.uk/post/age-is-...

NEW Paper: Relative Age Effects in Women’s and Girls’ Cricket 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿♀️🏏🧵 Significant RAEs within the national pathway RAEs increase with competition level RAE Reversal at senior level across all formats Effects sig for batters & bowlers but higher in batters

Notable how Lumbar Bone Stress Injuries in cricket are the most costly type of injury at 17.9% of all (direct & indirect) costs. The next most costly was Abdomen injuries at 12%. www.jsams.org/article/S144...

Age Ordered Numbered Bibs are a feasible and hopefully effective enough method to ACTUALLY address Relative Age Effects &/or maturation selection bias. To their credit the ECB are testing its use at four counties. onemoresummer.co.uk/post/how-to-...

Surrey CCC with a positive step to diversify the intake into cricket's pathways. 👍