MUTARE- A foundation spearheaded by one of the country’s international cricketer Tino Mawoyo, has launched a grass root talent identification and development cricket tournament targeting players and coaches in Manicaland province.
By Donald Nyarota
Mawoyo, the Founder of the Junior Development Festival, said the second phase of the festival will develop a sustainable model of talent development to feed into the national squad.
He added that their target was a comprehensive approach to cricket development that targets young cricketers as well as providing technical capacity to coaches.
He however reckoned the success of the festival which he said was through a strong partnership with other stakeholders that include Red Cross, Zimbabwe Cricket and well-wishers.
He said the success of the festival was through partnerships with Red Cross, Zimbabwe Cricket and well-wishers.
“Tough times at the moment, we didn’t manage to do last year but we felt that we had to do it this year although we have down-scaled in terms of what we could do for the kids. We will have five teams this year up from four.
“The most important thing is enjoyment for the children and the coaches because the reason that we came up with this tournament is we want to identify talent but we also want the kids to enjoy.
“This year we are also running with the option of having coaches because we felt that it is not sustainable to just identify talent without coaches to groom the young players, that’s why this year we are having a coaching course.
“Look at the national team now, most guys are in their 30s they don’t have many more cricket years so those people need to be replaced by competent cricketers that’s why we have taken up this grassroots initiative
“In our model, we look as supporting under privileged children to ensure there is motivation as a foundation that has just started we are looking to attracting more support for such children.
“We are working with local coaches and some of them have already excelled in the sport and it gives motivation to the young kids when they see role models who have made it in the sport.”
Mountaineers Cricket Club general manager Wonder Chisango said such partnership plays an important role in the development of sport for the franchise.
Chisango said the franchise embraced this as a pathway of development, and has entered into partnerships with local schools for placement to ensure development of talent is sustainable.
“We are coming on board to say let’s identify the talent because that is our future as a franchise and we will take it up from there in partnerships with local schools that we have identified to take up the kids for further development.
“It’s a pathway for development that we are glad to be part of as a franchise and we will make sure that the partnerships and volunteer coaches and targeted schools continue with the grooming of talent,” said Chisango.
