C.E. JUNIOR REPORT UPDATES 2009
It was decided by the CE committee that Junior Development would be a priority for the growth of Spanish cricket in 2009, therefore a Junior Development Program was put together.
Part of this program has already taken place, and this report is to update you on what has happened so far.
At the end of February we held our first ICC introductory coaching course which was held under the guidance of National Coach Bobby Denning, with a wide range of candidates taking part. The course was a success and achieved its goals.
Two young players were invited by Cricket Espana to take part in the successful Centre of Excellence run by the staff of ICC Europe. It was the first opportunity forSpainto offer the positions to our colleagues at the Lanzarotte Cricket Association and one Junior from Albox Cricket club who are both working hard with junior coaching.
It was also decided that at junior level,Spain, though in a position to, would not participate in European competitions in 2009, but instead, would invest this money in locally held tournaments and more High Performance Training weekends with Derbyshire County Cricket Board. CE believed that this would benefit more youth players nation wide, than just those selected for a European tournament.
Our U19 development Squad took part in an International Schools Tournament held at La Manga club, withMillHillSchoolin Middlesex, Blundell’s school fromDevon,BromsgroveSchoolin Warwickshire andCampbellCollegefromNorthern Ireland.
All these schools were strongly represented withMillHillSchoolhaving an England U16 player, and with 2 schools having ex county players as coaches the standard was high.Spainbeing coached by Derbyshire head of Development Chris Porter and assisted by Derbyshire Colleague Alan Hancock.
Spain’s performance was excellent throughout the tournament, with a strong win againstCampbellCollegeand a narrow defeat in the last over to Bromsgrove school. A high scoring match in the last game against Mill Hill producedSpain’s best performance.Spainlost the game with the last ball of the innings after chasing down 243 runs to lose by a mere 2 runs.
The decision to invite the Derbyshire coaches proved to be a success with the improvement and confidence of the players growing as the tournament went on, Spain will continue with this type of development for the rest of 2009 and into 2010.
The Cricket Espana Schools program is now in place with all the information going out to schools in certain regions ofSpain.
The program is to assist PE teachers in schools with teaching pupils how to play cricket.
Cricket Espana supplies each school who take up the offer with 2 Kwick Cricket sets, an introductory coaching course, discounted equipment, and the supplying of coaching manuals in Spanish.
Mar Azul International School were the first School to take up the scheme with 150 boys and Girls being taught Cricket in a structured program at the school, this is the beginning of what could be a massive program of Junior Cricket, if the interest is strong we could have over 1000 boys and girls playing Cricket in Spain by 2010.
The future of Spanish Cricket is in our hands.
Neil Brook
Director Junior CricketSpain