The Asian Cricket Council, in col-laboration with the English Cricket Board, organised Level – I course in United Arab Emirates from February 20 to 27. As many as 15 coaches from five countries attended this seven-day course. It was third such course organised this year, the previ-ous two being in Qatar and Kuwait.
The main aim of this course was to equip beginner coaches with the skills and knowledge necessary to introduce cricket to young people in an effective and enjoyable way.
The chief tutor was Mr. John Moore, a Level-III coach, from English Cricket Board. Mr. Iqbal Sikander, Development Officer, Asian Cricket Council, and also a Level-III coach from Pakistan, assisted him. ECB supplied the course material.
It was during the pre-course evening that the linguistic factors became apparent. While much of the delivery was understood, Mr. Iqbal Sikander translated some of the more complicated parts in Urdu. Once the practical course started, translation was required less often. It was usual-ly during the sununary of important points that interpretation into Urdu added clarity.
As comprehension skills were limit-ed for some of the candidates, the questions were read out to the candi-dates and then translated. The answers were also translated where the English was considered compli-cated or difficult. In the end all of the candidates passed the multiple-choice paper fIrst time.
For practical assessment, Emirates Cricket Board provided 16 boys from different schools. They were immacu-lately turned out and were a credit to their country. The linguistic factors led to the decision being taken that candidates would have the choice of being assessed using a mixture of English and Urdu or English alone. This was possible because of the lan-guage skills of the assistant tutor. All the candidates passed both their group coaching and demonstration assessments.
The tutor and co-tutor discussed each candidate individually before carrying out the debriefing discus-sion. They were concerned that this Level-I certificate should not be seen as a passport to coaching and decided to consider three categories of candidates. Candidates who should remain at this level and where appro-priate for a specific age group; candi-dates who needed to gain consider-able experience before considering Level-II and candidates for whom experience at using the Level-I material should be followed by Level-II.
During the closing ceremony, Mr. Iqbal Sikander briefly thanked on behalf of the ACC and congratulated Emirates Cricket Board for organiz-ing this event in the most profession-al manner.
Mr. John Moore, in his address, said that he enjoyed working with the participants and congratulated them on passing the course.
On behalf of the participants, Mr. Mahboob Al Moosa thanked the tutors for their untiring efforts in delivering this course professionally.
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