England U19 team's room turns into a classroom on non-match days

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England U19 players. (Photo Source: Indian Express)

England U19 team is touring India and have already played completed to One-Day series. On non-match days the England youngsters who represent the national juniors team are busy completing homework. Seven junior members of the squad are appearing for their A-levels which is the 12th grade here in India.

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have a thing called “Dual Aspiration” (DA) where a player is allowed to focus on their academics or any other field apart from cricket. Hence, on every off day at 9.30 AM, England team room turns into a classroom which is headed by the team manager, Mo Bobat who fortunately happens to be an ex-teacher.

He acts like a supervisor, keeping an eye on each and every one of them so that no one uses the “study time” for Facebook and other stuff. “I try and position myself so I can see their screens. I also need to walk around the room a bit. Generally, they are good lads and compliant. But you need to keep an eye, especially on the persistent offenders,” said Bobat.

Some of the players find it interesting because they think studying here reduces the workload when they go back home. Max Holden, who captains the side in the longer formats of the game said, “You don’t realize it then. But you go back home and there’s suddenly so much less work to do.”

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He also highlighted the fact that some of the players cannot miss school for seven straight weeks. He said: “They would have got a few weeks away from school before Christmas. Four weeks now in India. Seven weeks is a big chunk when you come towards exam time. We accept that it does have an impact on their education but our job is to minimize that effect.”

Louis Shaw and Tom Banton are working hard on their assignments. Both the players are expected to complete 36 hours of study time. Two hours on non-match days will help them get it done. They start the day with some music but once they get into the groove they are not allowed to text, make or attend any phone calls or even tweet. They get a 5-10 minutes break because some of them cannot concentrate for two hours straight according to Bobat.

Darren Devaney who looks after the personal and welfare development for ECB bridges between the boys and school. He makes sure all the classes missed by the junior cricketers since September are taken care off. When there is a tour lined up, Devaney is told about the assignments they need to complete.

Bobat has to conduct mock tests as well and if the time comes he even has to arrange for an actual one. “There was a tour to South Africa a couple of years ago when one of the lads had to appear for his official exam. I had to quickly organize a room in a university near Johannesburg to create the setting for him,” Bobat said.

Sometimes players tend to miss the deadline of their assignment and they have to reason for it. There are fines and rewards as well, fines if they miss the deadlines and reward if they put in extra hours. Bobat explained the same saying, “The boys know it’s coming. So it’s in their best interest to finish their work. The schools are prompt, too, and we did receive a mail from one about a lad having missed the deadline for his assignment.”

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