Programme aims to get kids on board

The long-term aim of a new cricket initiative in the Eastern Bay of Plenty is to have the return of secondary school and senior club cricket to the region.

The demise of the senior game a number of years ago, led to the dearth of cricket administrators, with the result that the lone cricket flag-bearers have been Whakatane United and Trident High School, who have played in Baywide and Western Bay competitions.

Bay of Plenty Cricket and the Whakatane United Cricket Club have combined forces to re-establish junior cricket in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Last year the first steps were taken by Bay Cricket, with several primary school cricket carnivals attracting plenty of attention.

A major step has been the appointment of Eastern Bay sports broadcaster Tony Kirby, as the EBOP junior development officer.

Kirby has already started duty to kick off junior cricket before the Christmas holiday break.

Eastern Bay Cricket spokesperson Trig Yates said: "We are starting the junior cricket initiative with Picnic Cricket in the Park, which targets year one to six youngsters.

"The basic skills programme will be run at Rugby Park early on Friday evenings for seven weeks in November and December 2014."

The Picnic Cricket in the Park is modelled on a successful concept run by the Western Bay of Plenty Cricket Association.

It is about parents turning up to Rugby Park to watch their kids get immersed in the introductory steps of the great game.

The games will finish with parents and their youngsters mixing and mingling with other families.

The programme starts with the basics, hitting, catching and bowling the ball.

Step one is for the youngsters to learn to hit the ball from an elevated tee. Other first lessons include how to throw a ball and the windmill way to bowl at the stumps. In the last two weeks the kids will play in six-aside games.

The first steps in the promotion will see Kirby going into schools to sign them up and give pupils a wee taste of the game.

"Whakatane United players such as skipper Alex Yates and leg-spin bowler Brent Sharma will be at Rugby Park each Friday night to assist and support the youngsters in learning about the great game," Yates said.

"A secondary objective is to get some parents to assist, whereby we have a pool of potential junior cricket administrators, which would allow us to re-start Saturday morning junior cricket."