Absence of playground hampers cricket

Posted in Labels: | 12:07 AM

24 November 2009

The lack of a proper cricket playground is an impediment to improvement and promotion of cricket in the country, according to officials of Bhutan cricket federation.
“If we had a playground like other sports, we could invite teams from abroad to play in our country since going outside to play for exposure is expensive and difficult.
Playing more matches will improve the performance of players. They will be able to tackle various situations better,” said the General Secretary of the cricket federation, Jigme Norbu.
He said that since the players practice on nets and not in open fields, when they go outside, they have difficulty adjusting in the open field thus affecting their performance.
But despite the difficulties, the performance of the cricketers has improved, he added. The Bhutanese cricket team has participated in 15 international matches and managed to bring home four runners-up prizes in seven years though they do not have a proper playground for training and matches.
In April next year, the men’s senior team will participate in ACC Trophy Elite in Kuwait. In September, the under-19 girls will play in ACC under-19 Women’s Championship and the under-16 boys will play in ACC Challenge in July for the first time in Malaysia. The senior men’s team have already started practising but the players for under-19 women and under-16 boys are yet to be selected because all the players are students who are presently doing their examinations.
“It is difficult to retain senior players because once they complete class XII they either go to India for higher studies or tend to drift away from cricket,” said Jigme Norbu.
The cricket federation organises school cricket matches in Thimphu, Paro and Gelephu so that they can select potential players and groom them to become national players.
They will extend the school cricket programme to Wangdue and Punakha next year. They tried to implement it in Chhukha but was unsuccessful because of far-flung schools.
Since the federation has only full time five coaches in Thimphu, during the school cricket seasons, they give some incentives to the national players to go as coaches in various schools.

The lack of a proper cricket playground is an impediment to improvement and promotion of cricket in the country, according to officials of Bhutan cricket federation.

“If we had a playground like other sports, we could invite teams from abroad to play in our country since going outside to play for exposure is expensive and difficult.

Playing more matches will improve the performance of players. They will be able to tackle various situations better,” said the General Secretary of the cricket federation, Jigme Norbu.

He said that since the players practice on nets and not in open fields, when they go outside, they have difficulty adjusting in the open field thus affecting their performance.

But despite the difficulties, the performance of the cricketers has improved, he added. The Bhutanese cricket team has participated in 15 international matches and managed to bring home four runners-up prizes in seven years though they do not have a proper playground for training and matches.

In April next year, the men’s senior team will participate in ACC Trophy Elite in Kuwait. In September, the under-19 girls will play in ACC under-19 Women’s Championship and the under-16 boys will play in ACC Challenge in July for the first time in Malaysia. The senior men’s team have already started practising but the players for under-19 women and under-16 boys are yet to be selected because all the players are students who are presently doing their examinations.

“It is difficult to retain senior players because once they complete class XII they either go to India for higher studies or tend to drift away from cricket,” said Jigme Norbu.

The cricket federation organises school cricket matches in Thimphu, Paro and Gelephu so that they can select potential players and groom them to become national players.

They will extend the school cricket programme to Wangdue and Punakha next year. They tried to implement it in Chhukha but was unsuccessful because of far-flung schools.

Since the federation has only full time five coaches in Thimphu, during the school cricket seasons, they give some incentives to the national players to go as coaches in various schools.

By Eshori Gurung in Bhutan Observer

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