Cricket chief hits ground running

NELSON DIRENG
Correspondent | Friday February 26, 2010 00:00

This week, he has been to the north of the country to introduce the game to children. He hosted his first orientation programme at the Francistown Sports and Recreation Centre this week for 19 government primary schools and 38 teachers. The teachers were drilled on the basics of the game.

'The teachers showed a lot of interest in the programme, which is a positive sign as teachers are the ones responsible for most of the development at school level,' he said. Ramakrishna said BCA plans to hire a full time coach, Clement Chipanga, to be assigned permanently in Francistown to drive the development programme. 'The vice chairperson of the BCA, Praful Jog is already based there which means he will be responsible for monitoring cricket in the north as I cannot always be there,' he explained.

Ramakrishna said five schools out of the 19 given orientation will be given kits and will be incorporated in the development programme. He said the schools will be selected according to the amount of dedication and enthusiasm the teachers showed during the orientation. 'Our aim is to increase the number of participating schools in future,' he said. Ramakrishna said that cricket has to be introduced in the whole country.

'Children outside Gaborone seem to be more interested in cricket and this forces us to take the sport to them.

Schools from outside Gaborone have also proven to be the better competitors, a fact clearly portrayed in tournaments,' he said. Cricket has in the last year been introduced to Letlhakane and Ramotswa.

Ramakrishna said that currently they are limited by the fact that they do not have enough coaches for the sport. He is optimistic that if all goes well, they will start a league for schools in the northern region. He said that lack of land has for a long time affected BCA operations. 'This is an issue we need to approach in a different manner as the strategies we have used in the past have failed,' he said.