International Cricket Council (I.C.C.) Development Officer Mr. Iqbal Sikander made a 4 day visit to Malé City this week to oversee the launch of the Cricket Board of Maldives Entry Level Programme ‘Criiio’. Although the event was launch was a washout with a huge downpour of rain last Saturday, the Criiio Programme is up and running at various locations throughout the country.
Criiio, play anywhere, anytime and by anyone is the culmination of nearly two years of research and design by the ICC – under the remit of Project Wildfire – to create a cricket offering for the hundreds of millions of people around the world who enjoy cricket outside of the traditional club and school structures – and to make it easier for people who aren’t currently playing cricket to do so. It has been designed to position cricket at the forefront of a global participation shift towards more flexible and social physical activity formats. It is a celebration of bat and ball as well as a format to engage communities that wouldn’t usually get involved in cricket. Watch out for Criiio Events coming your way!
As well as the launch, Iqbal was in Maldives to catchup on other CBM development work including the U19 National Squad and this years U16 Boys National Squad which, as guest of honour, was announced at a special gathering with players, parents, coaches and CBM Executive Committee Members. Mr. Sikander was particularly pleased with the pool of players been selected from around the country and brought together to represent Maldives in the Asian Cricket Council U16 Boys Tournament held in Oman in late October.
An experienced and highly respected cricket Coach Educator, Iqbal conducted a half-day Level 1 Refresher Course with coaches in the Indoor Cricket Hall in Malé. This was aimed at encouraging and reminding the existing coaching staff of the basics of bringing cricket to new players – Skills and Enjoyment! His positive energy feeding through to the coaches demonstrating why we love this wonderful game!
Finally, Mr Sikander toured the cricket facilities in Malé alongside CBM President Mohamed Aflah, Secretary General Ali Faiz and EXCO Member Afzal Jaleel – Outdoor Nets, Indoor Nets, match playing pitches and the Turf practice pitch. Offering ideas and suggestions for continual improvements that we have seen in the past 3 years.
