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Teenagers from rival gangs have learned to overcome their hostilities by playing cricket.
A scheme to encourage children in deprived parts of inner London to take up the sport has cut anti-social behaviour and improved school discipline, according to teachers and police.
The street cricket programme, StreetChance, has fostered co-operation and fair play among disaffected young people and helped immigrant children learn English, research from Loughborough University found.
The initiative, into its second year, has seen 7,000 young people in 10 London boroughs take up cricket. Teenagers play with a tennis ball covered in tape, modelling the game on the informal tape-ball matches that children play in Pakistan.
Past and present Test cricketers including England batsman Ravi Bopara, bowler Devon Malcolm and West Indies fast bowler Courtney Walsh have taken part in coaching sessions.
An evaluation by Loughborough's Institute of Youth Sport said the scheme had transformed the attitudes of previously disruptive teenagers.
Youths on two "gang-related estates" - St John's Estate and Aylesbury Estate in Southwark - put aside their rivalries to play cricket, learning life skills such as how to handle success and failure. "The coach and young people discussed how the programme initiated contact between communities from rival estates and encouraged them to work together," the report said.
Teenagers valued feeling part of a team, as well as the competitive matches, and for some the StreetChance sessions were the highlight of their week. The report said: "Young people discussed how the sessions provided a diversionary activity and prevented them hanging about streets and getting bored at home."
The programme was set up by the Cricket Foundation's Chance to shine school cricket campaign, and has been backed by Barclays Spaces for Sports and the Metropolitan Police. Mark Johnson, from Southwark police, said the scheme helped "break down barriers between communities which have never integrated".
Teachers also reported that playing cricket helped children learn English and improve their maths, as well as behave better in class. James Titley, from Tower Bridge Primary School in Southwark, said his pupils were "not able to work together before".
A 13-year-old girl who took part said: "You have to learn to get on with one another - even if you might not like that person - you have to get on with it so that you can play the game well."
Four out of 10 taking part were girls, and 67 per cent were from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Reader views (3)
what a load of rubbish and who is paying for these drug dealers to play cricket?
- Neil, London
I wait with baited breath for news of Londond first drive-by stumping.
- Bob, Cheam
What an absolutely splendid idea chaps!
Any initiative to reduce alienation in society is to be welcomed.
A great pity nobody in the Principality of Morecambe can afford a cricket bat and ball.
- Reuben Camara, Principality of Morecambe, UK
