Andrew
Online Reporter
OVER 500 young players had moments to savour as the curtain came down on the week-long Stanbic Bank Stragglers Junior Cricket development extravaganza in Harare.
The Stragglers Junior Cricket programme resumed with a bang last week after a two-year Covid-19 induced hiatus.
It featured budding cricketers aged between nine and 12 years-old, who played a game a day in an unprecedented exposure to all-round cricket in which all players got to bat and bowl.
Stragglers Cricket chairperson, Winn Ives, hailed Stanbic Bank for propping up the week-long event over the years to date.
He said the institution’s gesture to provide venue hire funding, t-shirts, caps and balls, as well as meals for the cricketers, was a financial relief on preparations.
“We commend Stanbic Bank for offering full support for all the development sides from Glen View, Chitungwiza, Bindura and Shamva.
“They are only coming here with their equipment while everything else is provided by the bank,” said Ives.
She said it was good to be back after a two-year break, adding that the same format in which all the cricketers were given opportunities to bat and bowl allows the players maximum exposure to all cricket styles.
One of the coaches of the development sides from Glen View, Jeffrey Makoni said he was grateful for the exposure that his cricketers received.
Makoni commended the format in which cricketers from elite schools mix and mingle with those from high-density suburbs and are drafted into same teams bringing a spirit of camaraderie in players from different walks of life.
“This is an experience of a lifetime for our players who get to play in top quality pitches and to rub shoulders with students of other races.
“Nothing can take this experience from them and all thanks to Stanbic Bank, who made sure that they are properly kitted,” said Makoni.
A coach for another development side from Bindura and Shamva in Mashonaland Central, Lazarus Ruzawi, echoed Makoni’s sentiments saying their pitches in Bindura left a lot to be desired and getting to play in lush green lawn was a dream come true for the cricketers.
Online Reporter