Menon's cricket puzzle coming together

| Friday June 1, 2012 00:00

 

Mmegi Sport: Who is Arjun Menon?Menon: I was born and raised on the east coast of Singapore and I played for the Singapore national team from 1994 to 1999 before I left for Perth, Western Australia, for my tertiary studies. I ended up working there and staying for 10 years, so I would consider Australia as a second home.

Mmegi Sport: When did your passion for cricket develop?Menon: I was part of the Singapore cricket development programme at the age of 13. I picked the game up quickly and excelled. I ended up making my debut for the senior team in 1996 at the age of 17. My love for the game developed from there and to the point that I wanted to make a living out of the sport. As playing professional cricket was out of my grasp, I decided to turn to coaching and learnt the trade while I was in Australia.

Mmegi Sport: Can you share with the reader what you hope to achieve in Botswana?Menon: I am the first full-time coach employed as part of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) mandate. The ICC has said coaches must be employed on a full time basis as part of their global initiative to promote cricket.

My first task was to prepare the senior men's team for the ICC World Cricket League Division Seven which Botswana hosted in May last year. We were unfortunate to miss out on promotion to Division Six during that tournament after playing well with a relatively young team.

Since then, I have been putting structures and pathways into place for the young Batswana female and male cricketers who have come through the system so as to be able to prepare them for the future. The youth is the key and it is important to keep them engaged and progressive through their phases of development domestically before we can hope to compete regionally or internationally.

Mmegi Sport: When did you start coaching?Menon: I have been a coach for seven years now. After completing my degree in Sports Science, I worked for the Western Australian Cricket Association as a Cricket Development Officer and it was where I learnt my trade. I have long wanted to work as a coach and have had previous experiences of coaching national teams of Chile and Singapore. I also did consultation work for the African Cricket Association  (ACA) in South Africa and it was during this time that I was approached by the Botswana Cricket Association.

Mmegi Sport: Why did you opt to work for Botswana while there are other powerhouses of cricket?Menon: When I came here for my interview, I saw the country had a very good development programme, started in 2005, which was implemented to introduce cricket at primary schools. So when I came and saw the young Batswana boys and girls playing, I was happy to take the role because the groundwork had been done by BCA, which meant I could work on developing the necessary structures to build on this momentum.

Mmegi Sport: What is that Botswana needs to do in order for cricket to be appreciated like football ?Menon:  We need more exposure internationally and as performances improve, it should get more publicity within the country.

Also, if one or two Batswana go on to play professional cricket, this would definitely help too as it creates role models for the sport in Botswana. It will take many years for cricket in Botswana and Africa to overtake football as the most loved sport because it has a lot of spectators.

Moving forward: Cricket coach, Arjun Menon