MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands’ encouraged by ICC will dispute cricket tournament in Costa Rica

Wendell Coppin, the International Cricket Council Regional Development Officer for the Americas

Last month Wendell Coppin, the International Cricket Council Regional Development Officer for the Americas, visited the Falklands on a week long trip to help aid the growth of cricket in the Islands.

He came straight off the plane on February 19 to the cricket ground at MPC to watch his first match in the Falklands.

From an early age Wendell has played for the Barbados team and over the years has progressed to cricket coaching. He currently coaches one of the West Indian fast bowlers as well as working with the ICC to develop cricket in the Americas.

His week here was used to train a couple of local cricketers to become Level 1 Cricket Coaches, and also hold a few coaching sessions for the children at the Community School.

The bulk of his time in the Islands was spent with the Falkland Islands Cricket Team, demonstrating various training exercises in preparation for the Division Three tournament in Costa Rica in a couple of weeks time.

Wendell also helped coach cricket players based at MPC and the Joint Education Centre was used to complete the relevant theory to the course. One of the sessions was held at the MPC oval, focusing on a mixture of scenarios, where the batsmen have a set number of targets which have to be met in order to complete the training.

Wendell was certain that cricket would continue to grow in the Islands, and hopes we can organise a competitive U17 team to eventually send away to play in internationally recognised tournaments around the Americas region.

The Falkland Islands Cricket Association would like to thank everyone who was involved during Wendell’s visit. Special thanks go out to Alex Lloyd at the Community School and the Leisure Centre for letting the Cricket Club use their facilities. (PN).-

By David Hewitt - Cricket Development Officer - Stanley