Over 60,000 children participated (from a target of 37,500). Over 60 schools took part across Papua New Guinea.
These were the numbers from the recently concluded Term 1 of the BSP School Kriket Program. Term 2 is already underway.
In its 10th year, the BSP School Kriket Program has attracted schools from Central, Oro, Milne Bay, Morobe, Madang, Western Highlands, Eastern Highlands, Jiwaka and West New Britain. The aim behind the initiative is simple - teach as many kids as possible the basics of cricket and hone talent for the national teams.
Game Development officer and BSP School Kriket Program Vaianna Gabba is overseeing Term 2 in NCD and she admittedly has a lot of fun working on this program.
“Except the fact that we deal with very cheeky students most of the time, we have a lot of fun doing this! We get to travel all around the country to conduct BSP School Kriket blast. We include primary schools and secondary schools in the program as well.
“The secondary schools are for the age groups between 13 and 17 as a part of the program and they train using soft gear and soft equipment.”
The BSP School Kriket Program is usually the students’ first interaction with cricket and Gabba is responsible for the smooth running of the program.
While the term begins with coaching classes and cricket clinics, at the end of the term, almost everyone involved literally has a blast.
“The BSP Blast is an end of term competition, where we include the schools that are involved in the program for the whole term and they come together for a mini blast, or a ‘mini-competition’, Gabba explained.
“At the end of the day, all centres collate their scores, but these scores are not as important as the development of these kids and their cricketing future. This time, we included all the schools that are involved in the program, into the blast.
“We actually have 4 confirmed schools that are playing in the field right now at Amini Park and the blast happens simultaneously all across Papua New Guinea. We have 9 schools for NCD. We have our 10 other centres running more than 5 schools, simultaneously, every day. That is almost 60 schools we go to across the whole term and have cricket clinics and competitions in.”
A breakdown of these whopping numbers means that Cricket PNG starts with training over 13,000 students in the first few weeks of the Term and ends up with over 60,000 students by the end of Week 10.
Added to that, 48 percent of participants are girls - a testament to Cricket PNG's commitment of empowering girls and women of Papua New Guinea.
If one only looks at the numbers it is clear the BSP program is a success. But when you find out that current players like Hebou PNG Barramundis Nosiana Pokana, Hiri Hiri, Kipling Doriga, Dogodo Bau and Damien Ravu as well as City Pharmacy PNG Lewas players Brenda Tau and Vicky A’ra have been found from these programs, you really know the BSP School Kriket Program is making an impact.
In fact, for the first time, the Hebou PNG Under 19 Garamuts that competed in and won the 2018 International Cricket Council (ICC) Under 19 Cricket World Cup EAP Qualifiers in Samoa all came through the BSP School Kriket Program.