President of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Bissoondyal Singh is ready to institute a comprehensive schools cricket development programme and plans to meet soon with officials of the Ministry of Education including Minister Priya Manickchand, to discuss its implementation.
According to a release from the GCB, it will place emphasis on nursery, primary and secondary schools, with the nursery aspect set to be formally explored for the first-time in the history of GCB’s cricket administration.
“The nursery schools’ cricket main focus is to introduce cricket related skills to kids at an early age,” the release stated.
“These training and development activities will be carried out across all three counties of Guyana under the categories Nursery, Under-9, Under-11, Under-13, Under-15, Under-17, Under-19 and will feature key development areas of male and female cricket,” the release added.
The GCB will look to facilitate the training of students interested in playing the sport some of whom will be identified for competitive matches.
The GCB said that with the exception of the Under-9 cricketers, competitions will be played in an Inter-Zone stage before graduating to the Inter-County level.
The Under-9 category, though, will be played under an Inter-School format which will be conducted for the other school categories in 2023.
The GCB stated that it will engage the Ministry of Education to permit cricket related activities on Friday afternoons within and among schools.
Singh also has plans for the establishment of country-wide academies along with a cricket college which he feels will enhance the all-round development of the cricketers.
It will also give those whose aspirations are not to become professional cricketers, the opportunity to have a career in other areas.
“A number of professional facilitators will be involved in the learning exercises that are designed to suit the student-athlete. The training activities are expected to include lateral areas of development, giving players an opportunity to consider careers in other related cricket areas such as, match referee, umpire, scorer, curator, coaching, manager, statistician, physiotherapy/strength and conditioning and administrative responsibilities,” the release stated.
The GCB said that it will also look at providing opportunities for persons to access Cricket West Indies coaching certification courses and umpire certification courses.
It will also include a `meet the player,’ component where national players will impart their knowledge to students, the release ended.
