The first in the series of six Kiddy Cricket Physical Education (PE) Teachers’ Workshops was launched yesterday at Sabina Park as the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and Scotiabank intensify their quest to develop the sport at the youth level.

WICB Kiddy Cricket Co-ordinator Philip Service told the Observer that the major aim of the workshops is to provide guidelines on how to foster the development of children at the primary school level.

“We are hosting the first in the series of (one-day) workshops for teachers and coaches in primary schools and the objective is to produce practical guidelines which can be used in instructing children at this level. It allows coaches to work out an approach towards teaching fundamental skills, which is so important if the youngsters are going to develop and become skillful players of tomorrow,” he said.

The regional sporting body and the financial institution have engaged over 70 Level One coaches across 14 territories in the West Indies. The PE workshops are geared at increasing the number of trained personnel delivering the programme, enabling many more kids in each territory to be taught the basics of batting, fielding, bowling and wicket keeping.

The workshops, which involves theoretical and practical activities, are also an extension to the Scotiabank Kiddy Cricket Programme and will target all the schools across the island over the next few weeks.

The Kiddy Cricket Programme aims to give primary school children an appreciation for the game. West Indies fastbowler Kemar Roach and batsman Kraigg Brathwaite are two graduates of the Kiddy Cricket Programme.

Added Service: “If we are going to produce the players that are going to represent the West Indies it is important that we understand that training the coaches who produce those players are important. This programme of providing the support and assistance is so important because it won’t happen naturally.”

Dr Joyce Graham-Royal, Education Officer in charge of Physical Education and Sports for the Ministry of Education, facilitates Service during the sessions. She welcomed the programme, while adding that it helps the development of the participants and also the children under their care.

“It’s an excellent idea… and I endorse it. It is developmental and it doesn’t just address the playing of cricket, because it involves life skills that the teachers are learning to pass on to children,” she said.