Young Cricketers Enjoy Coaching Day With Cricket Legends, July 20, 2008, Barbados

Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Everton Weekes and Charlie Griffith coach cricketers from the Digicel Sir Gary Sobers International Schools Cricket Tournament

The Digicel Sir Garfield Sobers International Schools Cricket Tournament held a coaching clinic last weekend with three Barbadian cricket legends playing host. Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Everton Weekes and Charlie Griffith all coached 20 lucky young cricketers who were participating in the tournament.

The clinic, held at the historic Kensington Oval, was the brainchild of Digicel, proud sponsor of West Indies cricket. The day saw young cricketers being taught how to improve their skills, develop their potential and prepare to become future stars of the game.

Legendary batsman and one of the famous three W’s, Sir Everton Weekes commented afterwards, “These young players are all very talented cricketers so it is a pleasure working with them. They are very alert, they listen carefully and I get the impression that many of them can go places.

“We reminded them of the basic fundamentals of the game. Charlie Griffith emphasized the importance of fitness, which represents 75 per cent of the game. They were also taught that there is room at the top of West Indies cricket and what they have to do to get there,” said Sir Everton.

One of the participants is Barbadian, Kareem Currency, a batsman with one of the newest clubs in the competition, Phoenix Academy. He was chosen for the clinic by his coach based on his great performance in the tournament.

“I picked up a few runs which helped to boost my confidence sky. All I need to do is convert some of my starts into runs and that’s what Sir Garfield Sobers was helping me do today, showing me what I could do to improve my technique and score more runs,” he said, adding that he also gained some excellent tips on fitness and stamina from Charlie Griffith.

Digicel Barbados Head of Marketing, Robert Chase, welcomed the unique opportunity to bring together the future stars of the game with past legends, and said that the collaboration was in keeping with Digicel’s commitment to support the development cricket across the region.

“The coaching clinics provide an exceptional opportunity for these young cricketers. To be coached by cricket legends on how to enhance their performance, improve their skills and develop techniques, is enormously beneficial. Digicel is proud to give young cricketers this type of opportunity to assist their long-term development within the game.” he said.

The tournament concluded on Tuesday, 22 July, in the Kensington Oval with Trinidad’s Queen’s Park Cricket Club beating Barbados’ Lodge Secondary School. This is the second year in a row that Trinidad’s Under 17 cricketers won the coveted Digicel Sir Gary Sobers International Cricket Tournament. On Thursday, the top players from each team will play in an all-star game at the 3Ws Oval at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies.