JUST OVER a week ago Texas billionaire Allen Stanford presented the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) with US$100,000 (J$6,498,000.00), the
first tranche of the US$280,000 (J$18,152,400.00) earmarked for the country's cricket development.
The money presented by Stanford will help in Jamaica's preparation for the Stanford Twenty/20 cricket tournament, which will be staged this summer.
President of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), Jackie Hendriks, said they were asked by Stanford's Twenty/20 Board to submit and "outline our development plans as to what areas we would be looking into and attending to and so on".
Although they have submitted plans to Stanford's Board, Hendriks said there is more work to be done.
"Much details were not given ... a lot more attention is to spend on it to give it some more body," Hendriks explained.
Hendriks mentioned some areas on which they plan to spend the money.
"We were looking at clinics for our youngsters in different disciplines," said Hendriks, who is also a West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) director.
"We were looking at three clinics per year for each disciplines to give them (youngsters) the basic fundamentals in batting, bowling, fast bowling, spin bowling, wicketkeeping and fielding and so on ...."
He also said they will be spending some time with the Under-19s and the George Headley School of Excellence, a training academy the JCA holds at G.C. Foster every summer for young cricketers.
"I think it (George Headley School of Excellence) is a very important part of our cricket and that's the sort of thing that we were looking into," he continued.
While saying those were the plans discussed, he said "the scope could be widened".
"When we get together to work it out, certainly other areas will be looked into," he added, while saying the media will be kept abreast as things unfold.
These developments he said should be starting soon as the national Under-15 team will be preparing for the regional tournament in April.
He said the Stanford Twenty/20 Board will provide them with an additional US$180,000., US$5,000 a month to help the clubs and parishes and a US$10,000 donation to help with coaching seminars.
- A. F.
