Gloucestershire are leading the way when it comes to developing the cricket stars of tomorrow – and that’s official.

The increasingly popular All Stars Cricket programme – launched last summer – is a huge campaign to bring five to eight year olds into the game of cricket and no county is doing that better than Gloucestershire.

Some 50,000 young people around the country have now taken up the ECB-driven course but Gloucestershire – through the Gloucestershire Cricket Board – are the first county to have beaten their target this summer with around 2,500 youngsters now playing at clubs in the area.

The GCB’s Chris Munden is the driving force behind the campaign in this part of the world and he is understandably delighted with the progress being made.

“We’re in year two of the programme and it’s going very well,” said Munden. “We had 1,400 youngsters signed up last year and this year our target was 2,320 and we’re well past that.”

Part of the attraction – apart from the great game of cricket itself of course – is that every youngster who joins the All Stars programme receives a cricket kit.

“That’s our USP,” said Munden. “They all get a kit, a bat and ball – the balls are plastic but with a seam on them – a rucksack, a T-shirt with their name on it and a cap.

“The All Stars programme is the ECB’s number one priority for cricket boards around the country.”

And Munden, who has been working for the GCB for 10 years, believes this country’s number one summer sport is in pretty good health around the county.

“I think it is very healthy,” he said. “Look at the number of cricket clubs in the area. A lot of them run junior sections and run multiple teams on Saturdays.

“There may be a few clubs struggling in more rural areas but the overall picture is good.”

And if the All Stars programme continues to grow at its current rate the picture should become even rosier in years to come.

Not every youngster who signs up for the All Stars programme will stay in the game of course – far from it – but if sufficient numbers do then that is all for the good of the game.

“If one or two come through at a club each year, then that’s 20 in 10 years,” said Munden. “If we do that club cricket is very healthy. And then there may be others who stay in the game as volunteers.”

Munden, a batsman who these days plays for Chippenham, identified three key ages when youngsters are most likely to drop out of the game.

The first is when they become too old for the All Stars programme, then when they go to secondary school and thirdly when they reach the age of 15, 16 and 17 and the next step up is adult cricket.

“The GCB tries to support clubs and keep as many people in the game as possible,” said Munden. “But there’s plenty of work to do.”

And Munden revealed there are plans in place to make cricket even more appealing to youngsters making their way in the game.

“The ECB are planning a new format for under-11s,” said Munden.

If adopted 20 overs of hard ball cricket will be replaced by players batting in pairs with all the bowling done from the same end to speed up the game.

There are also plans to shorten the length of the pitch to reduce the number of wides bowled and make it easier for batsmen to hit the ball.

That should be good news for all aspiring cricketers, and Munden, who enjoys the impressive title of projects and programmes manager at the GCB, certainly practises what he preaches.

His oldest daughter Eve is four next year and he said: “I’m looking forward to getting her signed up to the All Stars programme.”