The inaugural edition of the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup will begin in late April culminating in the final at the Lord’s, with a new honours board to be hung in the Pavilion at the Home of Cricket for the winners.

Michael Vaughan hopes that a new state school cricket competition will be able to spread the word about the sport to as many youngsters as possible up and down the country.

The inaugural edition of the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup will begin in late April culminating in the final at the Lord’s, with a new honours board to be hung in the Pavilion at the Home of Cricket for the winners.

With more than 1,100 schools having already signed up to this year’s tournament, which will feature under-15 tournaments for both boys and girls, the new concept is already proving immensely popular amongst state schools.

But the 2005 Ashes-winning England captain, who attended Silverdale School in Sheffield, wants to see the already-impressive uptake continue to grow.

He said: “The Knight-Stokes Cup is one that I hope that all kids in the state sector will hear about and look at. If their school hasn’t got a team already, I just hope that it’s the kind of aspirational trophy and opportunity that kids might pester their school teachers to go ‘we need to be in that tournament – we need to have an opportunity to potentially come here to the Home of Cricket and play a game.’”

“We all just want everyone to get that chance to play cricket. Sometimes you need something really big for that opportunity to start, and the Knight-Stokes Cup is one that I think kids will look at and think ‘I fancy that’ – and that’s how you get them playing.”

The competition, which is named after Ben Stokes and Heather Knight, who both attended a state school and then went onto captain their country, is financially supported by Barclays and The Black Heart Foundation, amongst others.

“It’s all about opportunity for those that can’t have the opportunity,” continued Vaughan, who stressed the importance of having such strong sponsors involved. “The Black Heart Foundation for over 20 years has been funding people’s education, road journeys into business and into opportunities away from university life and student life.

“There’s over 750 scholars now around mainly the UK but the US too; they wouldn’t have been given the chance in education and now the business life without the backing of the Black Heart Foundation.”

The Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup was first thought of by Vaughan, who then shared his idea with MCC chair Mark Nicholas during a golf event in Scotland.

Nicholas, who played for Hampshire for 17 years before becoming a broadcaster, immediately threw his weight behind the plan and offered up Lord’s as the venue for the showpiece.

“It came about with just a think-tank conversation,” added Vaughan, who played 82 Tests and 86 ODIs for England between 1999 and 2007. “I was actually at a golf event and I met with [MCC Chair] Mark Nicholas, told him the idea and he didn’t even hesitate. Full credit to MCC for not even blinking. They said ‘yep, great idea – why has it never been done before?’”

“You know you’ve got a good person when you ring up someone and say ‘I’ve got an idea and I’ve got a chance for cricket to grow. It’s a chance for all kids in the state sector to be part of a cup, a journey to play here at the Home of Cricket’ and he said ‘I’m in’. He didn’t need to know anything more. What he’s all about is giving opportunity to people that don’t necessarily have the opportunity.

“This is an opportunity for many more kids to come and play at the greatest cricket ground in the world; that’s what this tournament is all about.”