Introducing Cricket in US Schools System

Hello Readers,

This week I am writing from a Coaches perspective. Recently, Cricket Academy of USA (CAUSA) & Fulton County School System (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) embarked upon a Cricket development project. So far CAUSA has conducted 2 sessions for over 100 PE Teachers & both sessions have been a phenomenal success. The third session is scheduled on February 24th 2010.

Coaching in UK has left some unforgettable memories in my mind. In cricket playing nations, coaching beginners is comparatively easier as the participants have heard, seen, followed cricket on TV or read in Newspapers. They are not alien to cricket in any way. They know about the basic rules of cricket such as bowling, over, runs, etc, by default.

My experience of conducting this cricket development workshop with the PE teachers in Fulton county has been great. Most of these PE teachers have never heard of Cricket. Few teachers have heard about cricket somewhere & know that it's a British sport. During the second session, I showed them Yuvraj Singh's six sixes, they really enjoyed it & liked the fact that there is huge crowd & celebrations when something spectacular happens, just like in baseball. The teachers were curious to know how a batsman gets out, how many balls in an over, about running between the wickets. They really liked the communication part of running between the wickets - call of Yes, No or Wait between the batsmen. They got excited while doing the fielding & catching drills. Since they are all decent baseball players, they showed me a very easy, yet powerful & safe way of throwing. This is what many international cricket teams have started using, the baseball technique for throwing.

Some teachers were excited to know the various formats of Cricket. Some of them wanted to know about the pitch, questions about composition of a cricket team were interesting too.

Keep reading...

What do Batsmen talk in-between the overs?

Hello Readers,

I would like to share my experiences in Cricket with you all. This is just the beginning of many interesting insights into the game of cricket, more from a players perspective.

Many a times, my non cricket playing friends ask me what do batsmen talk in-between overs. In between the overs, the batsmen talk about how the bowlers are bowling, how the pitch is behaving, strategy or game plan for the next few overs in case it's a one day or a T20 game & if it's a test match then they talk about batting from one session to another. They also enjoy each others batting by appreciating a good shot. At times it can be funny too....I remember batting with Murali Karthik (Indian Test player) against Pace Bowlers Academy Gwalior (LNCPE) in 1994 playing for Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi, there was this fast bowler called Sanjay Pandey (Current Ranji Trophy player for Madhya Pradesh), he was swinging the ball like hell, this was an 'SG Test' quality ball (I was playing with an SG Test ball for the first time in my life). These balls tend to swing even after they are old. We were 100 odd for 5 when I went in to bat. After I finished facing my first over from Sanjay, I gently walked to Karthik, he looked at me & smiled, I said in Hindi "yaar SG Test ki ball se cricket thodi different hoti hai" (cricket seems to be a little different with an SG Test ball). Karthik kept laughing on this......

Take care
Anand

CAUSA invited by CCA for Under - 16 tour

Hi,

CAUSA has been invited by California Cricket Academy (CCA) for an Under 16 tour in April 2010. CAUSA players are raring to go & eager to better their performances from last tour.

All the best guys!