It was one of the successes of last summer, not least at Ammanford Cricket Club, but now All Stars Cricket is back in 2018 and it’s bigger and better.

Across Wales more than 2,000 children aged five to eight were introduced to All Stars last year – an innovation from the England and Wales Cricket Board to give children a chance to play the sport.

The All Star Programme gives children all of the skills – such as batting, bowling, throwing and catching – they need to develop a healthy attitude towards exercise.

In all there are 130 centres across Wales from Menai Bridge in the north, Pembroke Dock in the south West to Newport Pirates in the east are giving children an introduction to cricket through an eight-week programme. That is up from 93 clubs last year.

The take up in Ammanford was particularly impressive last summer with the club welcoming 65 young children to the exciting sessions that introduced them cricket for the first time.

“The fact we attracted 65 young children to All Stars was absolutely phenomenal,” said Ammanford Cricket Club’s junior organiser Clare Hope.

“The parents have been fantastic and everyone is really on board with the programme and the next eight weeks were a real boost for Ammanford Cricket to sustain its future.”

By registering for All Stars Cricket, children will be guaranteed eight weeks of jam-packed fun, activity and skills development.

The enjoyment which the children get out of it is impressive, and the core skills which they learn are useful in a wide variety of sport, not just cricket - like rugby, football, netball, hockey and tennis.

It also teaches children the spirit of cricket – the importance of respecting others – and how to communicate and work as a team.

Every child that registers for the All Stars Cricket programme will receive a bonus participant pack, including a backpack, cricket bat, cricket ball, personalised shirt, cap, and activity book.

The clubs running the scheme this year are found here: https://ecb.clubspark.uk/AllStars/SearchResults. Parents can type in their town or postcode to find one that suits them and sign up their child.