The Right Pitch

Building Life Skills Through Cricket

Students in India leave schools without developing the skills to thrive in the real world. The Right Pitch is a program that cultivates life skills in students from low-income communities using cricket as a tool. It gives them access to a sport, improved physical health, technical skills, role models, improved school performance, and a safe space to hone their skills and become holistic beings.

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Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Web presence

2015

Established

6K

Children

1

Countries

Target group

Students basic

Updated

May 2024

We believe that regular fitness and sports are as important as academics for students to build life skills and socio-emotional wellness. We want to build this narrative - sports should be an integral part of a child's education and children have spaces to develop and showcase their overall development.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

The Right Pitch (TRP) was born in one of the biggest slum communities in Mumbai, where children faced multifaceted issues such as drug abuse, child marriages, behavioral issues, and high dropout rates. This applies to 125 million children in Indian slums. As a result, there is a high rate of dropouts, and less than 50% of students possess basic life skills essential for employability.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

The Right Pitch uses life skills as a medium to coach students aged 8 to 15 from underresourced communities in cricket. We do this using the ERO Model -
- Engagement: 2 cricket sessions per week that enable them to learn sports & life skills. We have built our life skills curriculum that teaches concepts like self-awareness, understanding relationships, peer pressure, dealing with conflict, etc while playing the sport.
- Resources: such as cricket gear, jerseys, shoes, and fitness equipment to have fun and play safe. Each school is allotted a coach from their communities, who become their role models guiding them through life.
- Opportunities: to participate in the annual tournament (where they get an opportunity to showcase their skills), get advanced coaching (with leather balls), and represent their schools in external tournaments.
TRP has grown from a classroom management initiative in 2015, continued as a community-driven model for 5 years, and kicked off again in 2022.

How has it been spreading?

Between 2015 and 2017, The Right Pitch impacted 5000 children in 2 of Mumbai’s biggest slums. Since the pandemic, we've reached 13 schools and over 1200 students from Mumbai public and low-income private schools. To ensure quality, we train 100 children in every partner school with tennis balls. In the past 2 years, all schools reported increased attendance, 75% of students gained confidence, and 80% improved cricketing skills.
In the next two years, we'll reach 120 schools via government partnerships, providing life skills training through a digitized curriculum with 30 differentiated modules for 1000+ cricket coaches nationwide. Starting 2024, we'll expand to another city, 700 students transition to leather balls, with 10% connected to cricket academies for professional opportunities

If I want to try it, what should I do?

If you are a coach/school, identify a group of students interested in cricket (coach-to-student ratio - maximum 1:25 for best results). Reach out to us and we’ll be happy to train you on life skills, and technical cricket skills and share our life skills curriculum. Get in touch with us at contact@barefootedu.com.

Implementation steps

Scouting and assessing the need

Identify students from a specific school or community interested in learning cricket and an educator skilled in the sport with a growth mindset.

Train the coaches

Organise a training program for the selected coach where you train them to impart cricket coaching and life skills training to students for the entire year (24 modules of life skills and technical training). Coach training could happen 3 times in the year.

Get the gear in place

Arrange for resources for children to play the sport. This includes bats, tennis balls, stumps, shoes. You could fundraise for it, or find partners or supporters who will donate to you in-kind.

Kids on the Pitch

Engage with the students through biweekly life skills integrated cricket coaching sessions. Conduct a baseline and endline on cricket and life skills at the beginning and end of the year to assess students' growth. Track the student attendance, collect feedback from the schools and coaches to track student performance.

The Annual Tournament

After training the students for 7 to 8 months, organise a tournament for them to showcase their skills on a professional platform. This will lift their confidence, give them opportunities to put the skills they've learnt over the year on display, and learn from their peers.