Youth cricket in Botswana
Cricket continues to develop in Botswana, particularly among students, according to the Republic's government website .
Will Luke
25-Feb-2013
Cricket continues to develop in Botswana, particularly among students, according to the Republic's government website.
The third phase of cricket development kicked off this week with 500 students from seven government primary schools joining the programme. Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) Development Officer Girish Ramakrishna said the total number of students now stands at 1300, with more bound to join as the programme expands. The first and second phase of development covered nine (9) schools with over 800 students.
The cricket grassroots development programme, almost similar to the Botswana Football Associations Re Ba Bona Ha programme, has been able to spread to more schools. The seven primary schools that have just joined the initiative are the Batlokwa, Mophane, Lesedi, Botsalano, and Ben Thema, Galaletsang, and Ramogotsi. International Cricket Council (ICC) in collaboration with the African Cricket Council has sponsored the programme, with equipment donated to various primary schools.
Ramakrishna said they would launch the cricket league for government primary schools this year in October, to take the cricket game forward. The young cricketers gather at the BCA cricket oval every Saturday morning where they are drilled. The programme also runs during school holidays. Ramakrishna said BCA is happy about the enthusiastic response and they are happy to see that more schools are coming under the programme.
He said there are 729 government primary schools around the country and BCAs main objective is to introduce this development to all schools all of them.
Will Luke is assistant editor of ESPNcricinfo