Photo © ECC

An introduction to cricket was held at the National Sports Academy in Sofia on 13/14 April, hosted by Nikolai Kolev, and attended by about 25 Bulgarian students from all over the country, including Varna and Gabrovo as well as Sofia. On the Saturday morning, David Hampson and Tim Buisseret spent a couple of hours in the classroom with them, running through the basic principles of the game.

The 'Explanation of Cricket' on the www.cricket.org website was very useful for this purpose, as were the posters provided by the EDP. The ICC `This is Cricket' video was also excellent for reinforcing what they had run through earlier.

Photo © ECC

In the afternoon they set up some 'nets' on an outdoor artificial surface, using equipment borrowed from the American University in Blagoevgrad for the occasion. Batting and fielding wasn't too difficult to get across, especially to the students who had previously played baseball. Bowling was quite challenging, particularly keeping a straight arm! The weather was lovely - sunny and warm.

Photo © ECC

On the Sunday, they played a limited overs game. This was great fun, although the bounce on the artificial surface is low, and they are looking forward to getting the Flicx pitch which they have won so that they can play properly. They have found some natural players; Cirma Kikirina has a classic batting stance with very little coaching.

A number of the same people will be participating in a mini-festival on 11/12 May, organised as part of the European Spirit of Cricket Weekend festivities, but scheduled to avoid the Orthodox Easter. Four teams - Sofia Brits, Sofia Pakistanis, Sofia Indians and Blagoevgrad ñ will participate, each with a number of the Bulgarians who took part in the coaching last weekend, to give them further exposure to the game and help to develop their skills.

Photo © ECC

Beyond that, the National Sports Academy plans to include cricket within the curriculum for the next academic year. This was announced by the Vice-Rector of the Academy, Lachezar Dimitrov, at the coaching session.