First ball bowled in Fiji/NSW Partnership

August 8, 2001

Fiji U/19 squad member Aman Prakash gets on the front foot at the National Schoolboy Championships in Nadi © ICC

This weekend saw the start of a venture that will help shape Fiji cricket in the foreseeable future. Over recent years, the player and coach development side of the Fiji Cricket Development Plan has been conducted through an association between us; the Melbourne based International Cricket Council (ICC), a number of specialist Australian coaches.

This has now changed, and as an initiative of the ICC, various Australian State and New Zealand provincial cricket administrations have been given a responsibility towards some of the Pacific nations where cricket is going through development and expansion phases. Cricket New South Wales has assumed the responsibility for Fiji and Vanuatu, and the Under 19 squad that was in camp this weekend has been run by New South Wales coach Neil McDonald, as the first practical activity under the new partnership.

The term partnership is appropriate as the inter reaction between ourselves and New South Wales is very much a two-way affair. The venture is funded by the ICC, but the money comes from Fiji's development budget which is paid by ICC directly to Cricket New South Wales Cricket. Thus we have a real interest in seeing that the money is spent to the best advantage for Fiji Cricket. On the CricketNSW side, there is an obvious benefit in that their staff will have the opportunity of extending their coaching experience - and doing it in a rather more exotic location than that to which they are accustomed.

The agreement between ICC and CricketNSW is quite specific in terms of what is expected. The priority features are coach education - which entails running coaching programmes in Fiji, and also hosting advanced coaching courses in NSW -, coaching elite sides, in particular the current under 19 squad, and training administration staff if required. Other features are the collection of used equipment for Fiji, and the placement of Fiji cricketers to gain experience in the NSW competitions. Umpire development is another feature - and of course we already have a good relationship with the NSW international umpire Darrell Hair.

The potential advantages to Fiji are obvious, but like all new projects, the proof will be in the results and will almost certainly depend on the people who are involved in the project, rather than the content of the agreement. The Cricket NSW Chief Executive, Brian Hughes, has recently commented that their interest in the growth of cricket in Fiji and Vanuatu is part of its overall contribution to the games development. He said, "We hope that this partnership will play a pivotal role in creating and shaping the future development of cricket in Fiji. By passing on our expertise in the development and marketing of the sport, I feel we can make a significant contribution."

Our first coach, Neil McDonald, is currently the Regional Cricket Officer in the Newcastle/Hunter region of NSW, and if his enthusiasm for cricket is anything to go by, things look good. Neil has been playing senior cricket for about 20 years and comes from a cricketing family, with his father and three brothers all steeped in cricket. He is still playing in the Newcastle competition. He has been coaching since the early 1990's and has recently completed a level 3 course, which is the top coaching qualification. In addition to has coaching experience he has been through the usual club administrative positions of secretary, treasurer and chairman, so he is aware of all the problems of administration.

Neil was telling me that the CricketNSW has a work programme that is referred to as the 5 R's These are; Recruitment;Retention;Restructure;Research;Recognition. They seem to me to well portray the bones of any development programme, and I would hope that we can find some means of incorporating this sort of "aide memoir" into our own programme.

At the end of this camp we have to select the final squad of 14 to take part in the championship, and we will have Neil's advice in making that selection. Lets hope the weather doesn't spoil it - but it looks a bit cloudy out of the window!

This article, written by Fiji Cricket Operations Manager Robin Carr, was edited for the purposes of placement on the ICC website. It was published in the Fiji Times under the heading 'On the Outfield'.

© ICC