By: Mohamed Abu Conteh
Australian cricket expert Chris Smith will deliver online training for development officers of Cricket Sierra Leone (CSL) on Wednesday at CSL’s conference hall.
The aim is to train the officers to execute cricket entry-level and Criiio cricket facilitators’ programmes and to coach those new to the game.
The training will bring together over fifty cricket development officers. The whole idea is to strengthen the country’s cricket coaching base as CSL looks forward to reaching every nook and cranny of Sierra Leone.
Coach Smith has already shipped to Sierra Leone five hundred plastic bats for beginners and three thousand tennis balls for CSL’s Cricket 4 Schools Programme.
Meanwhile, CSL has three hundred and fifteen coaches. In April, it trained over 200 PHE Teachers drawn from the Western Area. Their certification will take the number of coaches to over five hundred.
Mid this year, it trained eighty Physical Health Education (PHE) teachers on cricket entry-level programme and criiio facilitators’ activity in Moyamba District, Southern Region.
The move was part of the ICC Legacy Programme for Africa, whose aim is to train 21,000 teachers by 2027 when Africa is going to host the ICC T/20 Men’s Cricket World Cup.
Sierra Leone has an estimated number of 108 umpires. CSL is poised to train one hundred and fifty-six umpires before the close of 2025.
The year 2025 is witnessing a boom in capacity-building programmes. The dream is to increase participation through the training of one thousand PHE teachers from various schools across Sierra Leone to enable deliver cricket in schools.