Wellington School of Cricket seeks a cricket coach

The Wellington School of Cricket, seeks a cricket coach on a fixed term part time basis on a seven month contract, from August 31 2010 – March 31 2011.

For more please view the position description

Any queries regarding the role, please contact Asoka Weerasundara, Manager Wellington School of Cricket at asoka@firebirds.co.nz, or (04) 471 2157, or 021 409 867.

Applications close on Tuesday 15 August 2010.

Wicket keeping sessions with Chris Nevin available

Chris Nevin, former BLACKCAP, is willing to share his wicket keeping secrets with you. With more than 100 first class games for Wellington, he is our most experienced wicket keeper and he has many tips that can help improve your game.

Chris is a former Blackcap and a New Zealand cricket qualified coach. The Wellington School of Cricket is delighted to announce that we are now open for enrolments for a 6 week special wicket keeping clinic with Chris. Learn more about the content of the course.

Dates: 1st, 8th, 15th 22nd and 29th Aug and 5th Sep

Format: Small groups (limited for four players in a group)

Session duration: One and half hours

Duration of the course: 6 consecutive Sundays

Venues and times:

Mana (Ngatitoa Domain): 9.00 to 10.30am
Basin Reserve: 2.00 to 3.30 pm
Hutt Recreation Ground: 11.30 to 1.00pm
 
Cost: $350 (including GST)

Contact Ivan on 021 894 338 or email i.tissera@firebirds.co.nz

We guarantee that all groups will be strictly limited to a maximum of 4 players to enable Chris to attend to the players individually so they get the best results.

The Wellington School of Cricket reserves the right not to run a session if there are less than four applicants for a group.

Wellington School of Cricket Graduation Programme doubles in number

After a very successful inaugural year, the 2010/11 Graduation Programme was launched at Westpac Stadium on 10 June 2010. With word of mouth of the benefits achieved by participating in the programme spreading quickly after the programmes first year, the 2010/11 intake is double that of the intake in 2009/10. Twenty students have been selected to participate in the 2010/11 programme and all have high hopes for their cricket.

All but one of the 20 students selected for the 2010/2011 GP were present at the launch, with the overseas student from Sri Lanka joining the group from early July.

The programme’s specialised coaches, former BLACKCAPS opening batsman Matthew Bell and wicketkeeper Chris Nevin, as well as fellow Wellington Firebirds players Andrew Lamb and Mark Houghton, were all present. Current Firebirds captain Bell gave a presentation from the players’ perspective.

Also attending the launch were Cricket Wellington Chief Executive Gavin Larsen, WSC Manager Asoka Weerasundara, recently appointed Cricket Wellington High Performance Manager Robbie Kerr and Elite Player Coach and Wellington Blaze Coach Mark Borthwick, who each addressed the new students. Kerr gave a special introductory presentation. Ivan Tissera was also present at the ceremony with his team of coaches Sachintha Cooray and Chris Martin.

The New Zealand Institute of Sport will coordinate some of the academic component of the 2010/2011 Graduation Programme, and their National Academic Manager and former New Zealand track runner and Olympian Tony Rogers was in attendance.

Students selected for the second WSC Graduation Programme came through a thorough application process, including a written presentation of their cricket background, goals and ambitions and what they hoped to achieve from the programme, testimonials from their coaches and a skills test in late May.

Out of the 20 students selected for the 2010/11 programme one is from overseas (Sri Lanka), 16 from Wellington and three from Central Districts.

First students graduate from Wellington School of Cricket Graduation Programme

The 2009/10 Graduation Programme ceremony was held at the Wellington School of Cricket’s indoor facilities at Westpac Stadium on 3 June 2010 where Wellington Cricket celebrated the sucess of the nine graduating students.

The graduation evening was an opportunity for the inaugural graduating students to be rewarded for their hard work over the year and for them to share in their successes with other students and their families.

The ceremony was hosted by WSC Manager Asoka Weerasundara and featured a keynote address by recently appointed Cricket Wellington High Performance Manager Robbie Kerr, who highlighted the importance of hard work and enjoyment.

Kerr and 2009/10 course coordinator Glenn Pocknall awarded the certificates to the attending graduates.

Pocknall said that as well as the programme’s tremendous benefits to the students’ cricket ability, an equally pleasing aspect for the graduates was their own personal growth and improvement in self confidence over the duration of the course.

The next step for these graduated students is a year two course, which is currently being finalised by the WSC.

The following players graduated at the ceremony:

Sushant Balajee
Jason Benjamin (India)
Brent Compton (Australia- in absentia)
Oliver Flemmer
Tom Foster
James Malthus
Paul Ratual
Jack Sargintina
Nick Simons
Tobias Wevers

Sri Lankan student Prajeev Janze could not complete the course as he had to return to Sri Lanka.

Indian master of spin assists Wellington's young cricketers

Cricket Wellington’s recent U16 tour of India was a wonderful opportunity for the spinners in the team to receive something that few New Zealand spinners do. As well as playing several matches against St John’s Sports Coaching Foundation and an Indian Boost cup side, five of the Wellington U16 tourists were especially fortunate in receiving extra coaching from one of the local Hyderabad heroes, when they came under the wing of former Indian Test player Venkatapathy Raju.

Raju, a former Indian spin whiz who played 28 Tests and 53 One-Day Internationals for India between 1990 and 2001, was enthusiastic in offering his expert tutelage to the five spinners in Wellington’s touring squad.

The five Wellington spinners - Ben McNamara, Nick Zivkovic, Bounty Semadheera, Rakitha Weerasundara and Brett Johnson - initially worked with Raju at the Hyderabad Gymkana Cricket Grounds where the Hyderabad first-class team was training.   

The fairytale continued for the budding spinners when Raju hosted a further coaching session for them on a subsequent day at the impressive Rajeev International Stadium.

This coaching session was a practical one in which the former left arm attacking spinner took the time to demonstrate his various techniques and wares, also watched by the keen eyes of Wellington team manager Gavin Larsen and coach Rhys Morgan.

Archive

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New partnership between Cricket Wellington and Whitireia Polytechnic

Impromptu coaching session by Tendulkar proves popular