Steering schools in direction of `motor skills'

This may come as something of a surprise, but increasing numbers of Irish children are playing cricket. This information comes from Brian O'Rourke, development officer of the Leinster Cricket Union (LCU), one of the few full-time employees in the game in Ireland.

"We're making great strides at grassroots level," says O'Rourke, who is in his third year with the LCU. "I was at a recent course in the National Coaching and Training Centre (NCTC) in Limerick, and the guys I met there were amazed at the growth of cricket. When I started out three years ago I thought it might be a difficult product to sell, but the reaction and interest in schools has been immense."

At this time of the year, as the schools close, O'Rourke moves away from the development side into coaching underage squads at Leinster and national levels. His initial approach to primary schools is through the teachers, whose response, he says, is invariably positive. His initial brief was to concentrate on primary schools in cricketing areas, the idea being that kids would go on to join local clubs. "I've got to decide if we continue on that basis, or whether the target area could be widened," he says.

"There are vast parts of Dublin where no cricket is played, but it may be possible to start little groups of maybe 11 or 12-yearolds. At that level you don't really need a wicket because you're using a soft ball, and you can play anywhere, like a school yard, a nearby soccer pitch or a public park."

O'Rourke says the fact cricket is so easy to set up in a school yard many teachers are now including it as an integral part of their PE programmes. The idea then is to teach the pupils the "motor skills", as O'Rourke describes them. Those skills include catching, throwing, fielding, batting and stopping balls.

Interestingly, O'Rourke says the "motor skills" have been neglected in Irish schools. "I think that is one of the problems in Irish sport in general - the kids are not being given those skills at crucial ages like nine, 10 and 11, and they don't have them when they mature, no matter what game they go on to play.

"European countries are far, far ahead of us. The average Irish 11year-old would be miles behind his or her equivalent in South African schools, and that was one of the major talking points at the NCTC coaching course in Limerick," he says.

He says the exposure cricket gets on television also makes it easier to sell, pointing out that the promotion of the game was helped recently with a 10-minute slot on TG4's Sport Iris programme, which was subsequently repeated on RTE 1. O'Rourke, who completed his England Cricket Board (ECB) level-three coaching course at Trent Bridge during the winter, says the board's back-up has been invaluable, especially its cricket CD Rom.

"It's part of a package sponsored by Channel 4 for the development of cricket in schools and it's amazing. On a wet day, I just go into the school's computer room and the kids can see real cricket on screen, learn about the cricket-playing countries and learn all about yorkers and bouncers, and what have you," he says.

Obviously, the school teachers play a vital role in O'Rourke's mission, and he says his fluent Irish ("I come from an Irish-speaking family background") has been a help. "Our aim now should be to get cricket in at primary, secondary and third levels," he says, adding that Brian Mullins, UCD's director of sport, is keen to have an artificial pitch installed at Belfield.

So the Irish cricket prospect is pleasing. Just imagine the boost the game would get were Ireland to succeed in Toronto, thereby booking a place in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.