PHILIPSBURG--The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) held a two-day foundation cricket programme for local coaches. The coaching programme, which is geared towards local school teachers, Kiddy Cricket coaches and aspiring coaches was conducted by Leeward Islands Territorial Development Officer (TDO) Junie Mitchum and Windward Islands TDO Irvin Warrican.
Both TDOs were being observed by Senior Project Officer-Development/Club Cricket within WICB; Fawwaz Baksh. Nineteen persons followed the course, mainly Physical Education (PE) coordinator for Public Schools David Forsythe and six PE teachers from the public schools, Executive Secretary of the St. Maarten Sports Federation Edsel Hooker; the Methodist Agogic Centre; Physical Education teacher Derec Spence; local national senior coach Rishie Singh and local U15 coach Stephen Evans, aspiring coaches and Cricket St. Maarten officials.
The coaching programme dealt with the following topics: Introduction to Coaching, How Children Learn, Safety and Group Coaching and Skills Development, which is basically learning and performing practical skills in wicket keeping, fielding, bowling and batting.
According to Baksh, “The West Indies Cricket Board’s Cricket Coaching Education Programme is designed to fulfil the needs of players through all their stages of development. Coaches who have gone through our courses will have the knowledge, skill and technique that are necessary for a player’s development. Better coaches will produce better players, which will result in more competitive cricket and ultimately strengthen and grow the game of cricket.”
The WICB Cricket Coaching Education started in 2001, but has been recently revised to adapt to the current needs of players and coaches. The WICB now offers five coaching courses: Foundation Level, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Tutor/Assessor. Baksh further told this newspaper that, “The Foundation course is being launched in all 15 WICB member nations and is our entry course to coaching in cricket. This course is the first course all coaches must take to progress through the WICB coaching courses, and is suited for those who coach our young children from age seven to 11.
“The course teaches our coaches how children learn at the different ages and how to make the sport fun and enjoyable through inclusion. The course provides our coaches with the basic skills to get our children playing and enjoying the game of cricket and keeps them interested to progress to the next level.”
To be a WICB coach you must have a WICB/UNICEF Child Protection Certificate, First Aid Certificate and a clean police record. Most of the PE teachers from the public schools completed the Child Protection Course, which was offered by WICB on St. Maarten a few months ago.
The trainers are scheduled to travel to Anguilla to conduct the foundation course with theoretical and practical sessions.
