Today’s coaching was a wonderfully varied mix of early-years play, cricket skill development, and introductory coach education across Pathari and the Bhutanese refugee camps. With more young people involved in the youth leadership programme in this camp, we saw fewer participants with existing cricket knowledge—but a fantastic number of enthusiastic newcomers turning up for their first taste of coaching.
*Kirtipur Academy – Bowling Focus*
The session at Kirtipur Academy showcased some excellent developing talent. The girls demonstrated great quality in their bowling, working maintaining momentum beautifully as they approached the crease. Becky spent time working with the group on swing bowling mechanics, and the progress was clear even within the 90-minute session.
The enthusiasm – combined with the high participation numbers (54 boys, 47 girls) – made for a buzzing and productive morning.
*Ardasha Sita Ma Vi – Skills & Games*
At Ardasha Sita Ma Vi, we ran a combined skills-plus-games session with a smaller but highly engaged group. With a good playing area and building on the strong work from Rakesh, the school’s active coach, we were able to run smooth transitions between bowling and batting stations before finishing with modified games that matched each age group’s stage of development.
*Early Learning Centre – Global Bhutanese School in Camp*
The middle of the day offered burst of energy at the Early Learning Centre, where we played lots of lively, imaginative games with the youngest children. The highlight was everyone pretending to be frogs — especially when Becky’s impressively long leaps left the children absolutely gobsmacked.
Meanwhile, Simon took a short break from frog-hopping to make friends with the local buffalo who wandered over to investigate the session. After a calm but firm conversation, he successfully guided them away from the playing area, much to the children’s amusement.
*Shree Harak Ma Vi – Close Catching Masterclass*
In Shree Harak Ma Vi, Wendy and Allyson delivered superb demonstrations of close catching technique. Their energy and enthusiasm set a great example, and the children responded with full concentration in a very small but enthusiastic playing area.
*Pathari Refugee Camp – Intro to Cricket Coach Education*
The day finished at the Pathari football ground with a general introduction to CWB’s cricket coach education. This was very much an “intro to the intro”, designed for new youth leaders taking their first steps into coaching.
The session produced one particularly memorable moment: world-class wicket-keeping from Ian, who pulled off a flying take off the bowling of Lee – caught on camera, to the delight of everyone present.
Despite limited cricket experience among the group, their eagerness to learn and step into leadership roles was great to see. This camp continues to show how powerful cricket can be as an entry point for youth engagement and confidence-building.
Sara
Be First to Comment