After a relaxing weekend of cricket and bird watching we were back to coaching Monday morning at the Marylebone Biratnagar Jwala Cricket Ground to work with the six teams that had just participated in the inter-school competition.
The Biratnagar tournament being the third girls school competition running while we have been here in Nepal. Competitions such as these are great drivers for the growth of cricket providing fun and focus for players, coaches, and teachers alike as well as allowing players to showcase their skills.
Watching the girls play the previous day gave us the opportunity to apply some genuine player-centered coaching to this session, and over breakfast we worked as a team to apply the “POP” approach to session planning (who are the Players? What Outcomes do they need to achieve? What Practice will we use to develop that outcome?).
We had seen that the batting and fielding were generally very good, but that any pull shots were always aerial and that bowling still featured plenty of bent arms, with limited efforts to generate pace from run-ups and follow throughs.
Having two hours for the session also meant we would be able to take our time with the group, discussing some more nuanced technical details as well as our ever-present discussions about harmful stereotypes and discrimination that girls’ face.
Two very contrasting sessions then took place in the afternoon, first we visited Purwanchal School, the alma-mater of Mandip our ever-present project leader from the Nepal Cricket Foundation. A small school with an internal courtyard smaller than a tennis court led to a crowded energetic session with lots of noise ringing around the confined area.
A short drive to the edge of town then had us unpacking our bags at Shree Naragam Model where a huge block paved area allowed for many more players to participate in a wide range of game-based play.
Lee
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