Why we started this
Sport has always been at the centre of our lives, especially cricket — it's the game we play most, and the one closest to our hearts. It has given us confidence, friendship, discipline, and the chance to keep challenging ourselves. Like most young people who play sport regularly, we have also outgrown a lot of equipment along the way — shoes that no longer fit, pads we've grown out of, bats and racquets replaced as we've gotten bigger.
Much of that equipment still has years of sport left in it.
During a visit to India, Neil and Aimee watched a cricket session at a well-known club and noticed something that stayed with them: talented, enthusiastic young players using kit they had clearly outgrown — shoes that no longer fit properly, pads and gloves patched together to still be usable. It was hardest to watch for the girls. In many communities, keeping girls in sport is already an uphill climb; add the cost of proper equipment, and a genuinely talented girl may simply never get the chance to find out how far she could go.
We didn't say anything at the time. But we couldn't forget it.
"What if we could connect the two?"
Back home, sorting through our own sports cupboard, we realised we had the exact opposite problem to the players we'd met: good, usable equipment we could no longer use ourselves, while somewhere else a determined young player had nothing to play with. Boys face the same problem of outgrowing good kit long before it's worn out — so we agreed from the start that Second Innings should welcome contributions from every pupil, boy or girl, and send equipment on to any young player who has the ability but not the kit. Cricket remains our main focus, since it's the sport we know best, but hockey, racquet sports, football and general athletics kit are just as welcome.