The Asda Kwik Cricket scheme has seen almost two thousand children get involved in cricket in the last year alone.

Co-ordinator Alan Harrison has been responsible for the organising of as many as thirty festivals held around Nottinghamshire.

"The county is split into eight districts, and in each of those we hold three or four festivals," he said.

"Each festival is a one-off day, often with as many as 20 schools playing a lot of Kwik Cricket, the winners of which go on and represent their districts in the county finals."

As well as providing inter-school competition, the scheme also offers the chance for children to be involved in competitive cricket from an early age, something that Harrison said is hugely important.

"The good thing about the scheme is that the festivals are all held in local clubs so it will help the kids become familiar with the clubs and eventually getting involved with them,"

"They'll develop a lot too, having the chance to play 3 or 4 games of cricket in an afternoon and even if they know nothing about the sport at the start, by the end of the afternoon they'll have a little understanding," added Harrison.

Nottinghamshire's schools have already tasted success in the Asda Kwik Cricket programme, Oaktree's girls' side finishing last year's tournament as champions, and Harrison has always been of the opinion that the talented players should be making the move to club cricket.

"We have been seeing players come through and into clubs, though not as many as I would have liked," he said.

"What you tend to find is, you look at the school kids, see one and say 'that's a reasonable cricketer', you'll speak to them and they're already at a club."

"It's not the main way that kids get into cricket, but often it can be a way of getting children who aren't the cream of the crop to take an interest in the sport, to have a go and try and get involved with cricket and maybe even go far," added Harrison.

The Kwik Cricket scheme provides children with the chance to play multiple matches in a single afternoon, something that the other competition, the schools' championship, doesn't offer.

"The alternative is just a knockout tournament and if they lose against a team who turn out to be one of the best sides in the competition, that's the end of their cricketing experience."