Twenty-two primary school teachers from the Northern Region converged at Francistown Sports Club for a three-day orientation course.
Some teachers came from as far as 100 km away to learn skills they would be able to impart to kids.
It was an eye-opener for new school teachers who have been roped into the Botswana Cricket Development programme.
The 3-day orientation course was conducted by the Botswana Cricket Association Northern Region-based development officer, Clement Chipanga. The event was characterized by both theory and practical sessions that saw the group of teachers go through the three main skills area in Cricket: Batting, fielding and Bowling.
The first day saw the participants embark on ball familiarization skills that included catching, stopping and ball retrieving exercises that constitute fielding skills.
The second day had the participants engage in batting fundamentals; the grip, stance and the backswing.
This was capped by playing mini game situations that saw the participants play Diamond cricket, rapid fire and continuous cricket games. This gave the participants the opportunity to exhibit the learnt skills in a game situation. Day three was a gear up as the teachers went through the bowling fundamentals: grip, coil position, windmill and release, thereby covering all the three major skills areas in cricket.
As part of the assessment, the group of teachers had to engage in Peer group teaching, which gave the participants the opportunity to practice applying learnt skills by teaching their peers.
A theory multiple-choice question answering exercise capped up the day. It is hoped that this laid down foundation will see more and more schools involved in cricket, thereby creating a large player base to tap talent from.
