SCOTIABANK Kiddy cricketers were stars of the show during the lunch break of West Indies’ six-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the One-Day International match at Sabina Park, Jamaica on Friday.

Dijay Dixon, a student of Kiddy Cricket festival winners Santa Cruz Primary, was among the almost 90 participants who paraded their skills at the ground.

The excited 12-year-old, who is a budding medium pacer, told the Jamaica Observer that it was a “great” experience turning out in front of thousands at Sabina Park.

The children, who are top performers in the Kiddy Cricket programme, displayed techniques of batting, bowling, catching and fielding based on coaching provided through the joint venture by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and Scotiabank.

Simone Hull, the regional marketing and sponsorship manager of Scotiabank in the English Caribbean, said her company has continued to freshen the programme.

“We’ve been doing the sponsorship for the past 13 years, but every year we try to improve the exposure that the students get. This year the students were from the Kiddy Cricket festival programme and some of them will go into our inaugural camp,” she said.

The Scotiabank Kiddy Cricket programme has been unearthing a large number of young talent as a result of increased hours of play and additional youth cricketing activities being staged.

The programme aims to give children an appreciation for the game and complements the appeal of education in schools, while providing equipment and training for coaches to teach the basics of the game.

The 2013 Scotiabank Kiddy Cricket programme includes a festival, a summer camp, motivational talks as well as coaching clinics and matches.

Accompanying the youngsters yesterday was cricket mascot Chirpy the Cricket, who was designed by a student of the Kiddy programme.

Chirpy replaced Clarence the Crab — who existed since 1999 — last year.

— Sanjay Myers