Grasp the moment to get children into sport

Recovered yet? No, me neither. For cricket, this is a pivotal moment to build on the momentum of the World Cup victory, grow the sport and reach new audiences.

These moments are rare, and must be grasped. At The Oval yesterday I saw the inspirational effect in action. A thousand local school kids of all ages and backgrounds enjoying their cricket. Youngsters getting their caps signed, eager hands straining to touch the trophy, some insisting on playing a “super over” now we all know what it is. This is what great sport does.

People are understandably now asking for more cricket on free-toview television. I think we can all agree that visibility is vitally important, and that young people need to watch their heroes to believe they can be there one day themselves. That’s why I was delighted with Sky Sports’ decision to open up the final to terrestrial viewers. But we cannot ignore the reality that broadcast income helps fund sport. Every penny governing bodies like the ECB gets from the sale of broadcast rights goes to supporting the sport.

So what we’ve got to do is encourage as much live sport to be as accessible as possible, without limiting their ability to maximise income to reinvest.

Investment also means giving kids from all backgrounds the opportunity to play. It’s welcome news that the ECB and ICC met their target of connecting more than one million children with the sport during this World Cup. This includes more than 700,000 who took part in the schools programme, and 127,000 who attended World Cup matches.

I saw the children at The Oval having a lot of fun, as well as being active, enjoying being competitive and growing in confidence with every hit of the ball. These outcomes are central to the School Sport Action Plan my department and the Department for Education announced at the weekend.

Our plan will help to ensure young people, particularly girls and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, have a greater opportunity to access at least 60 minutes a day of quality PE, sport and physical activity in school, after school, and during weekends and holidays. This is being backed up by Ofsted making physical activity a key part of its new school inspection regime from September.