Cricket is better built for this than most games
Written for the volunteer who has a child in the group they are not sure how to coach, and twenty minutes before the session starts. Everything here is something you can do on Saturday, with the kit you already have.
Why cricket, of all games
This is not a sentimental claim about sport being good for children. Cricket happens to be built in a way that suits a lot of neurodiverse players, and the reasons are worth knowing because they tell you what to protect.
The rules are explicit
Almost nothing about cricket is unwritten. For a child who finds unspoken social rules hard, a game where the rules are stated out loud and apply to everyone equally is a relief rather than a test.
It is slow
There is time between deliveries, between overs, between innings. A child who needs a moment to process what just happened gets one, built into the game, without having to ask for it.
Waiting has a job
Waiting to bat is a social situation with a reason to be in it. That is far easier than a crowd with no purpose, which is what most team sports ask a child to manage.
The scorebook is visual
What happened is written down and can be looked at. For a child who holds information better by seeing it than by being told, the game keeps its own record.
The usual contrast drawn is with football, where the thing a child has to cope with is the chaos — constant movement, constant noise, and rules that shift with the play.
In India, nobody is doing this yet
The Differently Abled Cricket Council of India, which the BCCI backs, covers blind, deaf, physical-disability and wheelchair cricket. There is no child-focused programme for autism or ADHD anywhere in Indian grassroots cricket. In England, clubs working this way have shown what helps. We would like to bring it here, and we would rather do it with clubs than at them.
What to change on Saturday
The batting order on a board that you keep pointing back at. A field map rather than the word midwicket. One named person the family can talk to. Permission to walk away for a few minutes without it being a discipline matter. Most of it helps every player in the group, which is why it is worth doing whoever turns up.
Read the coach guideSomething you have been wondering about
For your own thinking, about one child. Not an assessment, and not something to put in a player record.
A player you are already wondering about
For one child you have been thinking about, not your whole squad. It is not a diagnosis and it is not something to put in a player record. We never ask for their name.
This is for your own thinking, and nothing more. It is not a diagnosis, it does not belong in a player record, and it is not a reason to treat a child differently in front of their teammates. If something concerns you, the conversation is with the family.
What we can do with your club
The coach guide
The practical guide on this site, free and open. Written to be read on a Friday and used on a Saturday. It is a guide, not a course: there is no assessment and no certificate.
A session with your coaches
We will come and talk to your coaching staff about the children you actually have, rather than children in general. Ask us.
Somewhere to send a family
If a family wants an assessment, we see children in person across India and the UK and online. A club should not be the one guessing.