SPORTS LETTER : Too many women

From Mr Rodney J. Smith

Sir: Further to Martin Johnson's article "England's causes for concern" [13 June], the trouble that is too few top cricketers are coming through because cricket is not being played in primary schools. Here in Croydon, out of 106 primary schools only 15 play cricket, and the reason for this is the ever-increasing number of primary schools being run by all-women teacher regimes and all-women governing bodies.

At my son's primary school there is a superb cricket ground and even a stand which would be sold to the developers if it were not for the parents taking the sport. But they need help from official bodies, and the co- operation of the school staff, which is not there because, they say, of the demands of the National Curriculum.

Yours faithfully,

RODNEY J. SMITH

Croydon

14 June