Scarborough College aims to harness global pedigree on the cricket field

Australia, South Africa, Czech Republic, Hungary, Oman and the Caribbean represented in school's teams

Few schools can boast the international cricketing diversity of Scarborough College.

Offering the IB diploma programme means they are one of the go-to independent education establishments in the north east for overseas students.

Australia, South Africa, Czech Republic, Hungary, Oman and the Caribbean are represented across the 11 teams which supplement the Cricket Centre of Excellence – a partnership between Vitae Sports and Scarborough Cricket Club - giving the school a genuine international feel at a local level.

^{Scarborough College's ground with the North Sea in the background}

"A lot of our recruitment into the sixth form is international students," head of cricket Piet Rinke said.

"The cricket culture is quite diverse and vast, and what we try and harness is all the positives from all the different cultures around the world.

"We tend to blend it quite well and make for quite a senior first team. The teams below that feed off that and bring success from a results point of view.

^{Ryan Sidebottom with some of Scarborough College's young charges}

"Those who have come from the European nations have applied to come back again. 

"In the different elements that we provide, they do see benefits from an individual element and from  a family perspective. 

"Yes, there is a cricket programme but they obviously come here for an education and development from the academic perspective."

Rinke, who can count former England men's internationals Ryan Sidebottom, Craig White and Stephen Parry among his coaching team, represented Zimbabwe 18 times in one-day internationals in 2006. 

He has taken Scarborough College's cricket output from humble beginnings - he recalls a boys’ XI fixture in September 2020 against The Forty Club comprising six pupils and five teachers - to having more than 100 fixtures (girls protested at a lack of matches and the 2024 schedule will now mirror the boys) and producing an England Under-19 international in Jack Carney.

"We've got dreams and ambitions of being the most recognisable school in the country in terms of cricket provision to players," Rinke, 41, added.

"We are getting kids coming in at a younger age giving us extra time to work with them. That's where we're looking at in five years’ time. 

"You've got to remember we're a small school so it is pretty much getting the understanding of doing well at the top end of the school - which is where we're driving the programme - and making it about the younger age groups."

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