While there are a few matches outstanding and some scorecards still to be submitted, provisional figures are provided here on youth participation in Open Competitions for the 2016 season. The provision figures have been provided in case anyone attending the Cricket Leinster Club Day [1st October] wants to raise any issue about them. The figures will be updated in due course when all scorecards are in. It is not expected that the final figures will differ in any material way from those below.
The first thing to say is that the statistics relate to Youth Players as registered for adult - Open Competitions. This means that anyone who is 18 on 1st January, 2016 is included in the adult figures. There will be a further article dealing with the age break down in OC generally and comparisons with previous years.
First some basic figures.
359 youth players took part in OC matches [all types] in 2016.
Youth players competed in 3667 games [average of 10 per player]
31 clubs fielded teams with youth players - YMCA with 31 had the highest number.
Two charts from the statistics - the age profile and a breakdown on the activity levels. This latter is perhaps of particular interest as it shows up a wide variation in the amount of cricket played by individual players. A small minority [6] took part in 30 or more OC matches this season while 37 only played one match. Whether or not there is too much cricket for certain players remains an open question as we don't have combined figures for participation in schools, youth and representative matches. This may not matter so much in batting but it surely does for fast bowlers.
The figures behind the headings - Hyper-Active [30 plus], Very Busy [20 - 29], Regular [10 - 19], Intermittent ]5 - 9] and Occasional [1 - 4]
The breakdown by club its set out below.
| Youth | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | Games | G/Y | |
| Adamstown | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 37 | 5.29 | ||||
| Bagenalstown | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 68 | 9.71 | |||||
| Balbriggan | 16 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 162 | 10.13 | ||
| Carlow | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 30 | 7.50 | |||||
| Civil Service | 10 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 98 | 9.80 | |||
| Clontarf | 14 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 203 | 14.50 | ||
| Cork County | 2 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 7.50 | ||||||
| Dundalk | 3 | 2 | 1 | 18 | 6.00 | ||||||
| Dundrum | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2.00 | |||||||
| Greystones | 14 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 130 | 9.29 |
| Halverstown | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2.00 | |||||||
| Knockharley | 9 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 80 | 8.89 | |||
| Laois | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 46 | 9.20 | ||||
| Leinster | 31 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 219 | 7.06 | |
| Longford | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7.00 | |||||||
| Malahide | 19 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 240 | 12.63 | ||
| Merrion | 25 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 220 | 8.80 | ||
| Mullingar | 9 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 41 | 4.56 | |||
| North County | 19 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 238 | 12.53 | ||
| North Kildare | 6 | 2 | 4 | 54 | 9.00 | ||||||
| Pembroke | 19 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 244 | 12.84 | |
| Phoenix | 21 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 251 | 11.95 | |
| Railway Union | 21 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 187 | 8.90 | |
| Ringcommons | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 18 | 4.50 | |||||
| Rush | 21 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 271 | 12.90 | ||
| Slieve Bloom | 1 | 1 | 12 | 12.00 | |||||||
| Terenure | 16 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 158 | 9.88 | ||
| The Hills | 16 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 219 | 13.69 | |||
| Wexford | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1.00 | ||||||
| Wicklow | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 8.33 | |||||
| YMCA | 31 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 369 | 11.90 | |
| 359 | 41 | 66 | 79 | 54 | 50 | 49 | 15 | 5 | 3667 | 10.21 |
The youth cohort in adult [OC] cricket represents just under 15% of the total number of players. This is just under three per team. That probably sounds about right but of course this does not mean youth players are involved every week. What we don’t know is how many youth players are coming through the youth sections of clubs but not continuing to go on and play adult cricket.
The issue of burn out and injuries caused by too much cricket is something else that can only be assessed when we have better integration of figures across the different areas - schools, youth, adult, representative and even friendlies. This will obviously vary with the individual but is something that clubs need to be mindful of. Perhaps a suggestion for next year would be that all youth players [or at least those registered for adult cricket] be asked to maintain a log book of all the matches they played in the year [and for bowlers the number of overs].