ICC host African Members to catapult cricket across the continent
The ICC’s investment in Member Federations to grow the game of cricket continued as 34 of Africa’s cricket leaders took part in a forum hosted by the ICC Africa’s development team and supported by Cricket South Africa (CSA) to catapult cricket growth across the continent.
Participants from 19 Members undertook a two-day course hosted at The Capital Menlyn Maine hotel and included a visit to the High-Performance Centre and Centre of Excellence in Pretoria. The forum aimed at strengthening the relationship between Cricket South Africa and Africa’s developing nations gave the Members a chance to present their 2018 plans and provided an excellent opportunity for sharing best practice.
The main elements of the forum centered on thinking differently to provide the most successful sustainable platform for Members, to encourage people to access and participate in the sport.
Edward Khoza, Cricket South Africa’s Senior Cricket Manager who leads the forum from CSA highlights the importance of supporting developing cricket countries. “As one of the Full Members it is our right and responsibility to ensure the knowledge we have gained in our past experiences and where we currently are, to help assist the developing countries in Africa.”
Henry Okecho, Development Manager of Uganda Cricket Association shared the benefits of the forum and what learnings he will take from it. “The conference gave us a useful insight into how CSA run their programs and this made us realize how much more we could do to develop the game further in our own spheres. I realised that we could work with less to tailor programs to suit our landscape. We have almost similar development programs as theirs, so we can use their experience to remodel and enhance our structures.
Fazal Sheriff, Botswana Cricket Association Board Member, said: “CSA provided frameworks of how they conduct their programmes and pathways for players, coaches and umpires. Botswana can make use of some of the modalities to streamline how we get more people playing the game.”
The ICC’s Regional Development Manager for Africa, Patricia Kambarami is focused on equipping Members with the best possible resource and support to achieve their goals. “The ICC’s support to the African Members is crucial to achieving the sport’s long-term objective. Forums as these are crucial to bringing all Members together and learning from Cricket South Africa’s success. The amount of knowledge and enthusiasm in the room was very exciting to see, as we all work together to build a sustainable platform for people to play the game.”