JEDDAH: Saudi Cricket Center recently organized a Level-I coaching course under the development program for the year 2011 in Jeddah. The course was conducted by Mohammed Iqbal Sikander, ACC development officer and former Pakistan Test and one-day player. The four-day course was a combination of immense training program and workshops which provided a wide knowledge about the art of cricket coaching. Asian Cricket Council (ACC) offers courses in umpiring, coaching and curator specialties at various levels to its affiliate and associate countries under its development program. These courses are conducted by world-class coaches and instructors who have played at the highest level of cricket. Thirty participants from affiliated regional cricket associations attended the course. Nadeem Nadwi, CEO Saudi Cricket Center (SCC), in his welcome address to the participating members said that it is the first time that Saudi Arabia has organized ACC Level-1 coaching course and hopefully it will help the Kingdom to produce cricketers of international class in the future. He further said that local coaches have a great opportunity to learn the basic skills of coaching in order to promote the game among the local children at grass-root level. He paid a strong tribute to Iqbal for his valuable time in sharing his cricket and coaching knowledge he gained in his illustrious career. Meanwhile, the theoretical part of the course was carried out at a local restaurant while the practical and other field demonstrations were conducted at newly built Hala Cricket Academy (HCA) in Jeddah. The modern and finer technicalities pertaining to the game were discussed and learnt under the expert guidance of Iqbal and ACC qualified Level-2 coach Tapas Chattopadhaya. During the training period of four days Iqbal taught about the batting skills, bowling techniques, fielding skills and drills and the art of wicket keeping as well. As per ACC classification the successful participants will be able to coach up to U17 players and will be called by Asian Cricket Council for Level-2 or higher courses to learn about the advance techniques. The participating coaches were adjudged at two skill levels at the end of the course. The first level was the communication while the other was to present a practical demonstration of a given subject in front of several students. __
