GCB to discuss schools’ cricket with Education Ministry officials

President of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), Bissoondyal Singh, has indicated his readiness to institute a very comprehensive cricket development programme in schools.

Education Minister Priya Manickchand

In this regard, the GCB would soon be meeting with officials of the Ministry of Education to discuss the implementation of the schools’ cricket programme from 2022 onwards.
The Board plans to place emphasis on nursery, primary and secondary schools, with the nursery aspect being formally explored for the first-time in the history of GCB cricket administration. The main focus of the nursery schools’ cricket programme is to introduce cricket-related skills to children at an early age.
These training and development activities would 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 would feature key development areas of male and female cricket.
All activities would begin with the training of students interested in playing the game, in order to facilitate the identification of these players for competitive matches.
With the exception of Under-9 cricket activities, competitions would be played from an inter-zone stage before graduating to players participating at the inter-county level.
The Under-9 category would be played in an inter-school format which would be conducted for the other school categories also in 2023.
To support this initiative, the GCB would engage the Ministry of Education for permission to conduct cricket-related activities on Friday afternoons within and among schools.
Additionally, GCB president Bissoondyal Singh has plans for the establishment of his countrywide academies along with a cricket college, which he feels would enhance the all-round development of our cricketers and give those who may not become professional cricketers opportunities to have careers in other areas.
A number of professional facilitators would be involved in the learning exercises that are designed to suit the student-athletes.
The training activities are expected to include lateral areas of development, giving players an opportunity to consider careers in other cricket-related areas, such as Match Refereeing, Umpiring, Scoring, Curating, Coaching, Managing, being Statisticians, Physiotherapy/Strength and Conditioning, and Administrative Responsibilities.
These training activities would include the conduct of Cricket West Indies’ coaching certification courses and pathway activities to umpire certification courses. They would also include a component named “meet the player”, where national players would impart their cricketing knowledge to students.