The cricket development programme in Botswana continues to grow in leaps and bounds. The first phase of the programme for this year kicked Off in February which saw at least 524 students from seven government primary schools registered for the programme this year. The Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) Development Officer, Girish Ramakrishna, told the Sunday Standard that since the inception of the programme last year, the number of schools in and around Gaborone, including those in the Kgatleng District have expressed interest to join the programme.

This year the interest shown of schools joining the programme has been much higher in comparison to the total number of registrations they had last year. The cricket grassroots development programme is aimed at promoting cricket and to spot talent at grassroots level. According to Ramakrishna, the programme involves, among other things, administration courses and basic teachers training courses. He added that “The best way to nature talent is targeting students at the grassroots level because these are formative years for a child. The child is energetic and there is lot of enthusiasm,” he revealed. Ramakrishna further revealed that they have teamed up with the Kings Foundation, which imparts valuable life skills to children after the cricket development programme sessions. He said given his experience, he wants to take cricket in the country to greater heights. “I have been working with children for 25 years. Our aim this year is to have more government schools participating in the league.”

This first appeared in an ICC Development Programme newsletter