Age Range:
• 11 – 13 years [Years 7 and 8]

Skill Descriptors:
• Physical literacy
• Fundamental skill development – striking, throwing, catching, bowling
• Skills challenges to test and measure skill mastery
• Use modified, safe, plastic equipment

Objectives:
• To introduce school children to the fundamental skills of cricket.
• To have fun and provide the opportunity to acquire an interest in the game through the development of a range of basic cricket skills.
• To test these skills and acknowledge competence levels with appropriate awards.
• To promote physical activity, foster an understanding and enjoyment of cricket and encourage children to participate in the game.

Outcomes:
To provide participants with opportunities:
• To have fun
• To increase their level of physical activity
• To learn, practise and utilise a number of fundamental movement skills
• To test themselves against a set of easily measurable standards and achieve a bronze, silver or gold award in recognition of their level of competence

Resources:
To support the ‘Skills Challenge’ New Zealand Cricket has designed a high quality resource for teachers to use to develop and test a set of fundamental movement skills with their year 7 and 8 students. It fits easily into the ‘Health and Physical Education’ programmes, covers curriculum objectives for both Level 3 and 4, and can be used in conjunction with the current ‘Small Ball’ and ‘Striking’ units, or it could be used as a standalone module. Each lesson is accompanied with appropriate teaching points, drills, assessment activities and recording schedules.

Teachers require only limited cricket knowledge to organise and run the preliminary drills and testing activities as they are skills-based. Similarly only a minimal amount of equipment is needed to conduct the ‘Skills Challenge’. All the drills and activities have been set up to run using readily accessible Kiwi Cricket equipment and balls.  

For each of the skills included in the ‘Skills Challenge’ there are a number of easy to organise and run drills that teachers can use to increase the various skill competencies of their students before presenting them with the final challenges. For each challenge students record their performance and then depending upon their aggregate score for all five challenge activities they will be awarded a bronze, silver or gold certificate in recognition of their efforts.

The ‘Skills Challenge’ can also be used as an interschool or interclass competition. The aggregate ‘Skills Challenge’ scores of each student can be added together for each school team or class, or they can be averaged, to get an overall school or class total score – the highest of which can be awarded the title of ‘top’ school or class.

The ‘Skills Challenge’ resource and certificates are available from New Zealand Cricket at email info@nzcricket.org.nz or through the Community Cricket Coordinator in each cricket association.