Accra, June 27, GNA - The Ghana Cricket Association has embarked on a programme to assist senior high schools throughout the country with the needed sports equipment towards the revival and development of the sport in the country.
The Association has also designed plans to organize cricket coaching courses for sports masters in the various schools as a means of unearthing the talents of the youth at the school level. The first beneficiaries of the exercise which included Accra Academy, Labone Senior High School, John Teye Memorial School, Akosombo High School and Presec were presented with three pairs of pads, 10 balls, six bats, gloves and a pair of wickets as their training kit at a ceremony in Accra on Friday.
Prince Ernest Oduro-Mensah, Chief Executive Officer of the National Sports Council in an address said it is gratifying that the Association has embarked on grassroots sports development, adding that such a move would go a long way in making the needed impact.
He said the game of cricket has come of age with the youth exhibiting their ambition of making Ghana the citadel of the sport and urged the various sports association to emulate the cricketers to develop grassroots sports. Prince Oduro-Mensah stressed on the need for the equipment to be accompanied with the needed technical know-how and skills to develop the talents of the youth to develop and sustain the sport in the country. He noted that sports development can go a long way in enhancing the socio-economic needs of the country through the collective assistance and collaboration by all participants at all levels so that the lesser known sporting disciplines can be enhanced and participated in. Prince Daniel Vanderpuye-Orgle, Chairman of the Ghana Cricket Association said 26 schools in five regions have been selected to benefit from a supply of equipment which has been jointly donated by the Australian and South African Cricket Associations to form the basis of a pilot scheme at the school level.
The beneficiaries of the programme to benefit from the pilot scheme are eights schools from the Greater Accra Region, Ashanti Region -5, Central - 5 and Eastern and Northern Regions four schools each. Prince Vanderpuye-Orgle said the national Under-15 team, who are the defending African champions are mostly unemployed and thus a plan has been put in place to assist the various schools by serving as coaches to harness the needed talents at the under-13, under-15 and under 17 categories. He said the various secondary schools are to be encouraged to participate in the game of cricket by involving both boys and girls and to ensure that they have the needed equipment to propagate the sport especially among the girls since it is only Achimota School that has a girls' team. Present at the ceremony were Mr James Aryeh, Administrative Officer of the National Sports Council, Dr William Ampofo, Vice Chairman of Ghana Cricket Association as well as students and teachers from some of the schools.