Kwik Cricket - Taking off in Cyprus!

France National Squad and Coaching Course

France Coaching Camp - Chauny, 17/18 April 1999

France - Level 2 Coach

Cricket in Norway A letter from Varugis George (India) and Ashirul Amin (Bangladesh) With representation from over 80 countries, the students in the Red Cross Nordic United World College form a very diverse and dynamic community. The game of cricket is a minority sport, in that it is not so well known except by a handful of students in this community. Over the last two years, this sport has grown from a virtually non-existent activity to quite a well-organised one. Our college is situated by a fjord called Flekkefjord in the west coast of Norway. The weather is notoriously unpredictable; it rains a lot here which makes the ground soggy, and there is practically no even ground because of the mountainous terrain, at least not enough for the sort required for a sensible game. Nevertheless, in the spring of 1998, an oar was cut into good proportions to make a bat and with a tennis ball, four students, from India, Bangladesh, Wales and South Africa respectively, decided to start to play the game in an open field. In the course of a week, we managed to gain the attention of seven other people, and soon, we were playing the game on a weekly basis. The number of players continued to increase and reached 20, and they expressed a desire to learn the game. We continued to train and play the game with the crude gear until we the Christmas vacation, and then bought two complete sets of batting gear, one for the wicketkeeper, and an additional bat, and some cricket balls, which were bought in and brought over from India and Bangladesh. With proper cricket gear, the game continued in earnest. And it was not that it were the students from cricket-playing nations only who played the game. True, there are a few of us who are 'leading' the activity and are in charge of the equipment and others matters, but there are also students from Estonia, Kazakstan, Vietnam, Palestine, Bulgaria, Rwanda, Namibia, Germany, Israel, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Swaziland where cricket is not so common, as well as from the cricket playing nations mentioned in the beginning of this report. They all show a great interest in the game, and some of them already show promise. For example, it was a marvel watching the Swazi executing three perfect reverse sweeps in quick succession, and the Estonian tearing off the stumps with a precisely measured yorker. The game has not been restricted to this college community alone. School children in the adjacent community of Flekke have been introduced to the game of cricket. It was very gratifying to see the euphoria that ensued from the children playing the game for a good hour. We continue to play outdoors as much as we can. The winter frost that just passed was used to our advantage because it provided a very fast pitch with unpredictable bouncers and so allowed some good training, although we had to dress extra warm and had to wear gloves because the temperature was too low. Now that spring is come, and the daylight hours are getting longer, we can play longer and later into the day. We intend to play in the midnight sun before the second years leave. We have also managed to groom some of the first years to take a leadership role next year when we are not here. More needs to be done and can rightly be demanded from the Cricket Activity in the college. But we are confident it as made a very solid start, and should continue as a successful activity in the coming days. Eight candidates successfully completed the ECB Level 1 course recently. The course was tutored by David Jukes, a staff coach based in Belgium, and ran over four weekends during March. Ron Fyfe, from the Luxembourg Cricket Federation. deserves considerable credit for his efforts in arranging the course which was a resounding success.