Rishi Sunak joined the growing number of young cricketers at Northallerton Cricket Club – and practised his batting.

Visiting the club, the Richmond MP and Prime Minister met members of the 12 junior teams who now play at the club.

A keen cricketer, he took part in a nets session, facing several balls from the young players.

Northallerton Cricket Club has four senior men’s teams, a women’s soft ball team and 12 junior teams with players aged from nine to 17.

Darlington and Stockton Times: Rishi Sunak with young players at Northallerton Cricket Club

Mr Sunak heard how the club had steadily grown the number of young players enjoying cricket at the club over a ten-year period.

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Club chairman Andy McQuaker said: “We have been working on introducing more young people to cricket for a while and we are now seeing some of them feed into our senior teams.

Darlington and Stockton Times: Rishi Sunak faces a ball in the nets at Northallerton Cricket Club

“It was great for Rishi to be able to meet them – he is clearly an enthusiast for the sport.”

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Mr McQuaker said that in addition to the competitive teams there were up to 40 five to eight-year-olds involved in the English Cricket Board All Stars programme at the club.

Mr Sunak, who also got to play with some of the youngsters on the All Stars programme, said: “I love cricket so it was great to see so many young people being introduced to the game at the club by a group of inspirational and dedicated coaches.

“They have a super set-up here – both the ground and the clubhouse.”