zimcricketnews.com

The Herald carries news this morning of the new grassroots development programme being launched by the Mashonalad Eagles, covering all agegroups from Colts (5+) to U19 level. The eventual aim of the project, according to Eagles CEO Hugo Ribatika, is to establish an academy that would serve as a conveyor belt churning out talented players to both the franchise and the national teams:

"We started off with 50 students because we had not gone all out to create awareness since we first wanted to put structures in place before going full scale. Enrolment, however, is still on-going. The objective primarily is to create a sustainable feeder system for both the men and the women’s teams. In order for us to be able to achieve that goal, proper development structures need to be put in place.

"The reason why we came up with this programme is threefold. Firstly we do not feel kids play sufficient cricket in their respective schools. Secondly not all children who have the passion for cricket have the facilities in their schools and lastly it’s part of our efforts to preach the gospel of cricket to all stakeholders.

"Cricket is becoming very competitive these days and we have a development sub-committee to ensure that Eagles will always compete at the top. One of the board’s mandate is grassroots development and in line with our theme our primary goal is for every kid in the franchise to love cricket. We believe in sustainability and in building a firm foundation for the future."

Grassroots was one area of cricket that suffered from real neglect during the 'dark years'. If you want a decent pool of players to select your national side from, you need to have a constant stream of players coming through the system to choose from, so full marks to Eagles for making this effort.
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