JAMES COYNE: Andrew Strauss and Ebony Rainford-Brent throw their weight behind new T20 festival bringing together schools, academies and national teams at Millfield from June 29
Millfield School is gearing up to host one of the most ambitious youth cricket festivals in history.
There are strong cricket schools signed up for the 2025 Apex International Cricket Festival in Somerset, but they will also be competing against a Warwickshire Academy girls' side, MCC Foundation boys' and girls' teams, the Next Level Academy, along with visitors from overseas in West Delhi Academy (which counts Virat Kohli among their alumni) and even the Namibia national team.
In all, eight boys' teams and eight girls' teams will be vying for honours at the inaugural T20 festival from Sunday, June 29 to Wednesda,y July 2.
English cricket should be reaching fever pitch at the time, as England's men prepare for the second Test against India at Edgbaston, and the corresponding women's teams in the midst of their T20I series.
Andrew Strauss, the 2010/11 Ashes-winning captain, is an Apex ambassador. He told The Cricketer: "To have Namibia, and participants from India and South Africa, conceptually takes these festivals from what people assume they're going to be – a lot of private schools playing each other – to something mixing academies with schools to an international side.
"It makes it a melting pot of people in the world who love cricket."
Another high-profile ambassador is Ebony Rainford-Brent, the 2009 Women's Ashes, World Twenty20 and World Cup winner and acclaimed broadcaster, also now chair of the African-Caribbean Engagement Programme and an ECB board director.
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Ebony Rainford-Brent, the 2009 World Cup winner with England (Apex)
She said it was Apex's pledge to provide seriously inclusive elements that won her support. For example, Lacuna will be providing specialist girls' kit.
Millfield requires little introduction as the leading sporting school in the UK. Their director of cricket Mark Garaway is a former Hampshire wicketkeeper, England team analyst and Ireland high performance director.
The festival will be based at the school's international-class grounds, which have staged first-class cricket, as well as nearby Butleigh CC, a picturesque club ground in the shadow of Butleigh Court.
"We're very lucky to have access to so many high-class facilities at Millfield, with international-pace pitches," said Garaway.
"And what a backdrop at the school: in sight of Glastonbury Tor.
"Playing at Butleigh should be an experience. You glance up and there's what looks like a castle at deep square-leg!"
There will be a range of high-level coaches on hand running skills workshops on days two and three. Julian Wood will coach power hitting, Paul Nixon wicketkeeping, Mark O'Leary and Max Waller spin bowling, and Will Lintern boundary fielding.
"Will is the Great Britain baseball coach who helped improve Ireland's arms from the boundary… just in time for us to beat Straussy's England at Bangalore in the 2011 World Cup!" recalled Garaway.
But, beyond cricket skills, Apex aim to provide life opportunities for their participants.
The title sponsors are Titan Wealth Planning. Their CEO, Derek Miles, will offer a workshop pointing attendees towards their company's internships.
This aspect was important to Strauss: "Yes, it's a competitive festival, but it's also about kids meeting people outside their little bubble and using cricket in a way to understand there's a big wide world out there with plenty of opportunities for jobs that might be in cricket or might be outside cricket.
"So there's a broader personal development element in there that I like."
MCC Foundation are one of the tournament partners. Their girls' and boys' players will be drawn from MCC Foundation hubs in the south-west – Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall – all attending state schools and benefiting from free high-quality winter training.
Bat for a Chance, the charity helmed by student Will Gaffney, will bring a van down to the event to collect cast-off equipment to donate to their outreach projects across the globe.
Apex are also promising an app, which would offer participants the chance to stay in touch with their digital global community well beyond the weekend.
Strauss backed the festival's aim to keep people in cricket for longer – recognising that only a small percentage of young hopefuls make it to the pointy end of the professional game.
"In a lot of ways, we forget that the foundation of all sports is the recreational game and the kids that are playing it. If you're still playing cricket by 15 you're likely to be a supporter for life.
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(Apex)
"We need to nurture and nourish that next generation, and understand it's not just about going along playing professional cricket. It's the lifeblood of the sport that sits underneath it.
"That community aspect of the game, whether it's the people you're playing with or doing the hard yards in the pavilion, while at the same time understanding cricket is changing very quickly, so therefore getting kids playing T20 cricket, and both girls and boys, aligns with the way cricket is heading."
Garaway added: "We'd like to keep people in the game for longer.
"New Zealand Cricket is the best model out there, if you ask me. They're just so good at looking after people. You can drop down, then bounce back up again – and you stay in the game for life, so that your children and grandchildren take up the game too."
Apex have ambitions to go further afield. They are planning to hold two events in the 2027 English summer, with the northern festival to be held at St Peter's School, York.
They also have plans to go to Somerset College, Cape Town, for an overseas festival in future.
But it will all kick off in the English county of Somerset in late June.
All images: Jared Miller/Champions UK
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