CRICKET ESPAÑA FORGE LINKS WITH ESSEX CCC
Several members of the Cricket España directorate met with the head of Community and Cricket Operations for Essex County Cricket Club Dan Feist in Alicante recently to discuss the possibility of a cricket collaboration between the two parties after Nick Pink of ICC Europe had approached CE to see if they would be interested in forging links with an English county side.
As a result of this successful meeting it was provisionally agreed that CE and Essex CCC would work together on a series of projects in the future that should prove beneficial to both sides.
The strategic plan for year one is for Essex CCC to assist in grass roots cricket throughout Spain. Essex CCC will become involved in current CE projects, primarily cricket education within schools, and street and beach cricket events in the major cities and on the coast. Also on the agenda is a possible player exchange at the Cricket Espana school of excellence which will then also be reciprocated in Essex.
It is also anticipated CE will offer summer schools for boys and girls from the English county with Cricket and learning Spanish being part of the intended curriculum.
Further down the line Essex CCC hope to get involved in club and ground development if the initial projects are successful. Other projects under consideration are Over 50 tape ball tournaments, cricket coaching programmes for school teachers, and the development of cricket opportunities for disabilities in Spain.
The link was kick-started on the weekend of November 3rd 2012 when, Dan Feist, the Essex Cricket Academy Director and Performance Manager John Childs and Barry Hyam visited the Woodbridge Oval in Alfas to watch a development match between a Northern Regions XI and Southern XI Under 21 side. Players had to have grown up playing their cricket in Spain and developed their talent through the CE Development Programme to be eligible to play in this event.
Also during the weekend members of the CE directorate showed the Essex delegation around the facilities of La Manga and discussed in depth the pathway for development between the associations for 2013.
Further bulletins on this exciting new union will be released in the near future. For further details and information on this project please contact CE General Manager John Howden on jhowden999@yahoo.co.uk or Dan Feist of Essex CCC on daniel.feist@essexcricket.org.uk
Related story .. https://www.cricketspain.es/news.php?id=934