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Children and teachers take part on an Introduction to Cricket at Volksschule Geidorf school, Graz

It is hoped that two plenary "Introduction to Cricket" days held in a Graz primary school, will lead to the school making cricket activities part of its educational programme and a possibility for supervised afternoon activities for its pupils aged between 6 and 10.

Naresh Laddha has been responsible for the establishment of AVL Cricket Club – a cricket club whose structure is unique thus far in Austria, in that it is a sports club attached to a company’s employee leisure activities programme. AVL is a specialist company in the automotive industry headquartered in Graz.

Laddha and some of the players from AVL CC held a youth day in June and have now organised two one day sessions in a local primary school, Volksschule Geidorf, in suburban Graz, after their suggestion was viewed very favourably by the school’s headmistress, Mrs. Scheucher. Teachers have already expressed a strong interest to incorporate cricket as an activity in PE lessons and for afternoon supervised activities.

Siva Nadarajah travelled to Graz to assist with the first session on the Austrian Cricket Association's (ACA) behalf, and the school’s initiative is being recognised by the ACA with a Kwik Cricket set and accompanying resources being sent to the school to encourage their initiative as well as plans being made for an ICC Introduction to Cricket course being held to allow teachers to take cricket sessions.

It is also hoped that the school will be able to give a presentation to a teacher’s convention in Styria so that other schools might follow VS Geidorf’s lead. The ACA would like to thank VS Geidorf and the AVL CC, in particular Naresh Laddha, for this initiative.