Recent alumni of the Cambridge school have plied their trade with three different professional sides
SCHOOLS FEATURE
For many schools, being able to boast that you have pupils forging a professional career at any county is a feather in the cap.
But having alumni playing at multiple different counties? Well, that’s a real vote of confidence in your programme.
The Perse School, in Cambridge, doesn’t have to look too far in the past to find examples of its former cricketers now making their way on the county circuit.
Current Essex duo Michael Pepper and Zaman Akhter were both educated at Perse, while Nikhil Gorantla signed a multi-year, full-time contract with Surrey in the summer of 2025 and Bella Howarth has been plying her trade with Northamptonshire in recent times.
“It’s nice to have been able to give them that help when they were here and that’s led them on to bigger and better things,” says Perse head of cricket, Sean Park.
“As coaches, it’s great to follow their progress and be a small part of their professional cricketing journey.
“We encourage all of our players to go and and play cricket at whatever level, making sure they enjoy their sport.
“Being such an academic school, we try and find the balance between the cricket field and their study sessions too.”
Balance is a key theme at Perse, where the girls’ and boys’ programmes now have parity after huge investment in the former.
Like the boys, the girls’ First XI now have a fixture against MCC, while last year’s festival appearance at Pocklington will be followed up this summer with a visit to Blundell’s School, in Devon.
All of this comes off the back of the girls’ U13 side reaching the national T20 Finals Day for their age group.
Other opponents for Perse teams include the likes of Haileybury and fellow Cambridge institution The Leys School, part of a busy summer schedule which includes around 280 fixtures across all teams.
“We’ve worked really hard in getting parity between boys’ and girls’ cricket,” adds Park.
“The number of girls involved now is really exciting, especially in the lower years.”
Click here to find out more about The Perse School.
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