Young cricketers in follow-up skills development programme

The Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) one-day Skills Development Programme ended yesterday with the focus on getting young cricketers to have the fundamentals of the game deeply rooted with the other aspects of their game.

GCA president and coordinator of the one-day programme Roger Harper talks to the participants of the Skills Development Programme at the National Gymnasium yesterday. (Orlando Charles photo)

Yesterday morning at the National Gymnasium the under-15 cricketers were going through their paces with GCA president and former West Indies player Roger Harper and his brother, former national batsman Mark Harper.

Roger, the former West Indies and Kenya coach, said that yesterday’s programme was a follow-up to the GCA’s initial one-week camp and it was important that the facilitators gauge what the cricketers had retained.

“Today is a follow-up to the camp we had at Everest in July and the whole idea is to reinforce what we did at the camp. We identified areas from a technical standpoint for individuals and then focussed on the tactical side; then we ask them to go home and shadow bowl and bat especially since the weather is not that good,” the GCA president explained.

The younger of the two siblings  worked with the bowlers while Mark worked with the batsmen. Roger, who bagged a 100 ODI scalps from 105 matches, pointed out also that the participants were receptive to the lessons taught. He believes also that at this point in the cricketers’ development “it is important that the youngsters get this aspect of their cricket correct.”

When questioned on whether their technique may vary from that of the players’ coaches at the club level Roger said he hoped not. He indicated that the objective is not to conflict but rather that all the youngsters are benefitting from the same basic training.

“The basic idea here is to instill in them the proper technical aspect of the game. As far as conflict we need to look at what the coaches are doing and as a matter of fact we were talking about having a workshop for coaches to make sure that what we are teaching from the manual and that there is consistency throughout.

“We want our players to have a sound understanding of the technical aspects of the game and then apply them to their individual games,” Roger elaborated.

When Stabroek Sport spoke to Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) under-15 spinner Devon Lord he said that he has learnt a lot from the one-week camp and the programme yesterday. He revealed that he was taught that his open-chested style of bowling is going to prove counter-productive in his cricket.

Lord, who toured with the national under-15 side in March, said that he has been doing some remedial work at home and hopes to break out in the under-19 ranks sometime later this year. Further, Lord said that working at camp was easier because he has been keeping himself in good condition for when the cricket restarts.

Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC) batsman Kumar Singh also said that it was a good learning experience for him. He acknowledged that the coaches have been doing a good job throughout the programmes especially since he found out that he was not distributing his weight equally when he was playing a shot.

Thirty-six youth cricketers had been selected to attend yesterday’s programme but 23 turned out. There were 12 under-15 cricketers. The programame will be conducted in two sessions.

The invited players were Darien Best, Michael Shalim, Prince Roberts, Dexter George, Valdez Sukhu, David Mohammed, Josiah Mattel, Nadeem Rasheed, Aleem Rasheed, Martin Pestano-Belle, Fadil Umrow, Devon Lord, Kumar Singh, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Pravindralall Persaud, Daniel Manohar, Aboyomi Scott, Tevin Imloch and Yuvraj Paul Dayal, Mohan Ramdeen, Chanderpaul Hemraj, Denesh Mangal, Wasim Mustapha, Safraz Esau, Nicosi Barker, Kevon Fredericks, Clairmonte Duesbury, Ricardo Devers, Clevon Hyman, Dillon Fernandes, Raj Nanan,  Raphael Singh, Gavin Charles, Stephon Sampson, Marc Nicholson and Wayne Yansen.