‘Life through Cricket’ is a joint initiative between MJF Charitable Foundation and Cricket Live Foundation (CLF), New Zealand directed at training 12 – 15 local cricket coaches in and around Moratuwa.
Through them, providing cricket coaching for 50 under privileged children who are keen on progressing through cricket. The programme commenced on Sunday, 19 January 2014 at the MJF Centre in Moratuwa.
12 local coaches were enrolled at the launch and the first cricket coaching clinic was declared open for local coaches at the De Zoysa stadium and the MJF Centre Moratuwa. Through the programme local coaches will be provided with the opportunity to apply themselves in coaching the first batch of 20 kids from 26 – 28 January. Thereafter, a structured programme will be implemented for the local coaches to coach the selected kids with quarterly reviews, further strengthening the final outcome of the initiative.
All children who are fans of Sri Lanka cricket dream of becoming professional players one day. Dilmah strives to make these dreams a reality, giving children a chance at becoming stars of the game, by offering them proper training, facilities and encouragement. This venture is aimed at supporting the children who have grown-up in an under-privileged and disadvantaged environment and strives to give such children the opportunity to be recognised and to develop their skills not only as cricketers, but as young individuals.
Because the success of the player’s development is determined by the capabilities of the coaches and the environment they create, the coaches themselves need to be able to relate with the players and serve as inspiring role models and guides. Due to this reason the coaches in the programme have also been selected from similar backgrounds to the children.
Dedicated coach education clinics will be hosted twice a year for local coaches at each MJF centre. These clinics will be run by coaches and teachers from New Zealand and a select panel from India and Sri Lanka. The curriculum and coaching program will be put together by a team of trainers and teachers from New Zealand and local coaches whose main objective is to add an education aspect to a structured cricket coaching program. The programme will also emphasise on the 5 core values of the ‘Life through Cricket’ initiative; respect to family and friends, nutrition and healthy living, self discipline, team work and punctuality and time management.
The Cricket Live programme will run as a 6 month module. The initiative will also offer selected players the opportunity to revisit the programme in another capacity as a coach, mentor, administrator, marketing manager etc.
The MJF Charitable Foundation will provide all financial and logistical support for the selection and retention of local coaches, selection of local children, the coaching programme, development of the De Zoysa Stadium at Moratuwa and the extension of the programme to the areas outside of Colombo.
At the conclusion of the 1st phase of this joint initiative, a friendly T20 match is scheduled to be played between the Dilmah X1 and the CLF New Zealand team at the De Zoysa stadium in Moratuwa on Saturday, 25 January at 10.30 am in order to familiarize the local cricketing community with the programme.
