BARCELONA HOSTS JUNIOR TRIALS AND UMPIRE COURSE
Barcelona had a busy weekend of cricket when Spain´s top umpire and Spain´s Junior National coach visited the Cataluyna city simultanously for differing cricketing reasons.
Ron Graham, Spain´s sole representative on the ICC European Umpires Panel, conducted another successful In House Introductory course to umpiring on the 27th and on the 28th Neil Brook, the Spanish Junior National Coach assessed several youngsters as possible candidates for the ICC Europe Under 17 tournament in the Isle of Man this summer.
The Umpires course attracted 10 candidates, including Spanish international, Armaghan Khan. The course consisted of a DVD presentation and all candidates completed application forms to join the ICC European Officials Association at the end of the course. Six different clubs were represented at the event and the following candidates completed the course.
Aseq- A -Arman, Nadim Bengali CC
Riaj Howladar Bengali CC
Goldy Jaswal Olot CC
Armghan Khan Cataluna CC
Nisar Ahmed Cataluna CC
Muhammad Asif Zia Cataluna CC
Muharram Ali Minhaj CC
Sajib Jasim Bengali CC
Ali Imran Barcelona Eagles CC
Husnain Ali Shah Barcelona Eagles CC
(Ron Graham with the successful candidates from last weekend`s Umpire Intro Course)
The Junior Coaching event attracted numerous youngsters, all of whom were vying for places in the Spanish Under 17 side and four candidates were selected to be part of the squad to represent Spain this summer. Sandeep Singh, Faisal, Kuldeep Lal and Tahir Ilyas all impressed the Junior national selector sufficently to book themselves a place on the plane for Douglas in late July.
The Spanish Juniors start their season campaign on Wednesday 30th March with several games against Campbell College (Ireland) in La Manga and then the senior side will play 2 matches against the top Dutch side VOC at the same venue in the middle of April. A full list of the Spanish National fixtures for April can be found in the calendar section of the Cricket Espana website.
(Neil Brook taking a coaching session in Barcelona as part of the Spanish Under 17 selection trials)