Bangalore school makes cricket compulsory

From August 1, cricket has become a compulsory subject for the Class Five students of St Joseph's European Boys' High School in Bangalore.

Ever since the ICSE Board announced that Physical Training could be taken as a subject for the tenth standard examination from 2005, St Joseph's' principal Father Michael John looked for ways to include the game as a subject in the school curriculum. And now he's done it.

The boys are, of course, quite ecstatic.

"Cricket is a national obsession for us Indians, and I am so glad that I am going to learn to play the game in a systematic manner," says fifth standard Saurav Nandi, 10.

"I wish they would start it for us too," groans his friend, Joe Cyriack, 11, who is in the sixth standard.

"We are a school with a strong cricket tradition," says Father John, speaking to rediff.com in his office, crammed with trophies won at inter-school sports events. "We have as our alumni some leading cricketers like Rahul Dravid and Sadanand Vishwanath. Our under-13s and under-16s are also doing very well at the State level."

John believes that physical fitness and sports prowess gives young boys a positive self-image and helps them feel good about themselves.

Ever since he became principal of the school nine years ago, sports has become an important part of the curriculum. The students are urged to learn swimming in the school pool and get trained in at least one other sport.

On the day rediff.com visited the school, many senior boys missed the scholastic tests with the management’s permission to play a match. This is something quite unheard of in most other such schools.

Moreover, this programme is not only about teaching boys to play good cricket, or grooming them to be Indian eleven players. The real objective of the curriculum is to help the boys build leadership qualities and a spirit of sportsmanship.

"I have had numerous cases of boys coming to my school academically backward, but good at games," says John. "Once they came here, they got recognition for their athletic prowess, and this gave them so much self worth that they also began doing well in their studies."

John also felt that the boys spent so much of their time playing, but could never get anything back from their games, unless they reached very high levels of prowess in them. Besides, as boys reached higher classes, schools usually focused more on their academic progress and neglected their physical development altogether.

The junior most class in the school is the fifth standard. So, John decided to pick these boys, who were still new to the school, for his experimental project in cricket. His ideas, which were still in a concept stage, moved in the right direction after he met Makrand Waingankar, who was a consultant with the Karnataka Cricket Academy.

After this interaction, John zeroed in on a cricket manual, written by former England cricketer Frank Tyson, who is now a coach in Australia. Tyson’s manual actually gives a detailed morning-to-evening rigorous coaching programme for one month, with exercises and routines to be followed.

St Joseph’s will follow this programme, but it will be spread out over an entire year. There are three sections of the fifth standard, each having a strength of about 45 children. Each section will have two classes a week in cricket, during their regular physical training period, which comes at the end of the school day, in the school playground.

A physical training instructor will get the boys to do fitness exercises. School counsellor Manasa will help the children develop the right team spirit. She has already been attempting sports psychology in a small way, to build up her skills in this area. The principal himself is, according to many senior boys, a good sports psychologist himself.

Nandan Heblikar, an officer of the State Bank of India, who coached at former India cricketer Roger Binny’s cricket academy and at the zonal level, will coach the students. The bank has agreed to give Heblikar an hour off every afternoon so that he can spend time with the kids.

"I will be doing this service free, because I really like this concept," Heblikar told rediff.com.

"It's not that we all just want to become great cricketers," says Aaron Saldanha. "These cricket classes might just also lead us to other professions like sports commentary, sports journalism or sports psychology."

"My son and his friends already follow every moment of every major cricket match closely," says Aaron’s mother, Erica. "I believe I speak for all of us parents when I say that it is not necessary that children should only learn to write big answers to complex questions in school. It is equally important that school syllabi should also enable them to enjoy themselves."

Adds Vishal Achanta, also a fifth standard student: "Now our parents do not need to send us separately for cricket camps. It will all be taken of right here in school."

If this trial project works well over the next year, John will introduce physical training, with a specialization in two specific games, as prescribed by the ICSE board, as an optional subject for his ninth standard students, who will appear for their board examination in 2005.

Does the school management really think many students will take this elective subject, given the fact that most high school students in Bangalore are usually targeting careers in medicine, engineering or law, and opt for subjects that gear them for these?

"In this school, boys already have the attitude that studies and games always go together," says John. "Boys are out on our school cricket pitches from 6.30 am every morning; that’s how fond they are of cricket."

"We always tell them its better to play sports outdoors than to watch television or play computer games after school," he continues.

Adds Heblikar: "Let's face it, Indian children are certainly far more enthusiastic about cricket than about any other sport. Why not capitalise on it, and make ourselves a great cricketing nation? Introducing cricket in schools is probably the best way to start doing this. Holland introduced football in school curricula 25 years ago, and eventually became a football power. If more schools follow this pattern, maybe we will become the world masters of cricket in another decade."

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