Bond actor Colin Salmon is a man with a mission — to get more young Londoners into cricket by promoting a new-style version for urban areas.
Cage Cricket, which is played in an enclosed space by six people pitted against each other, is designed to develop all three disciplines of the game — batting, bowling and fielding.
Coloured blocks on the ground represent numbers of runs — removing the need for a large space — and the game can be played using a kit or permanently installed into a sports area.
Salmon, 52, alias Charles Robinson in Bond films Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day, grew up playing the original version of cricket on the streets of Luton but says it is now too dangerous because of a “proliferation of cars”.
There are 50 Cage Cricket kits at youth clubs across London, and Salmon, chairman of the new sport, said the aim was to get more children and young people playing. “We’re looking to get support for the game to roll it out wider. We want to get it played across schools in England. That’s the plan.
“There are 12,500 multi-use sports areas, this game was designed to go into them. Club cricket has become unaffordable. To add cage cricket to a multi-use sports area costs £2,500-£3,000 per court,” he said, adding that the game could be taught to coaches in a four-hour training session. Salmon said the hope was that children would progress into the “mother game”.
He said cricket is a “great metaphor for life”, adding: “It’s a long game, you have to conduct yourself properly. It’s not the fact you’re hitting sixes all the time, it’s the fact that you play in a sportsmanlike fashion.”
Celebrity supporters of Cage Cricket include former cricketers Ian Botham and Shane Warne. Salmon said Benedict Cumberbatch had also expressed an interest in trying it out.
Cage Cricket co-ordinator Sheromie Brewster said: “It’s refreshing when you watch someone play Cage Cricket for the first time as it is a unique experience and it brings people together from different backgrounds and all players are supportive of each other.”
