Regional Headquarters, Jamaica. Tuesday, August 6, 2019—Twenty-five persons including top cricketers across the region have recently qualified themselves with a level two Coaching course delivered by Cricket West Indies (CWI) in collaboration with The University of the West Indies (The UWI), Faculty of Sport. The four-day course which was the first in eight years hosted by the two entities, concluded on July 29, 2019 in Guyana.
Daren Ganga, Project Officer, at The UWI noted, “It’s a very comprehensive programme, which entailed us doing a comparative analysis with the English and Australian coaching certificate programmes. Based on this research, The UWI Faculty of Sport was able to come up with a level two programme that sat perfectly in the coaching development pathway.”
The course demonstrates the strategic implementation of The UWI’s mandate to develop and revitalise West Indies cricket through its Faculty of Sport as well as the CWI’s plan to strengthen the regional coaching talent pool. Among those who participated were, current and former Guyana and West Indies players such as Ramnaresh Sarwan, Leon Johnson, Travis Dowlin, Andre Percival, Veerasammy Permaul, Vishal Singh, and Steven Jacobs. The course is open to all CWI member countries and ICC Americas and another is scheduled to take place in Barbados later this month.
Jimmy Adams, Director of Cricket at CWI commented, “It is fantastic to have finally been able to get a level two course delivered.” He added, “The response in Guyana was very positive and I’m hoping that the course will continue to grow and evolve and get to the point where its 100% meeting the needs of Caribbean coaches. It also highlights our commitment to coaching development within the region. The level two is an integral part of the coaching pathway, so it’s nice to finally get the gap plugged.”
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More about The UWI Faculty of Sport
Launched in 2017, The UWI Faculty of Sport integrates teaching and research, professional development, community partnerships, and co- and extra-curricular student sport through three main units: Professional Programmes, Outreach & Projects Unit, Co-curricular & Intramural-Activity Unit and the Academic Programme & Activity Unit. The faculty is made up of four Academies of Sport: Cave Hill Academy of Sport, Open Campus Academy of Sport, Mona Academy of Sport and St Augustine Academy of Sport. For more information visit www.uwi.edu/sport.
The first initiative of the Faculty of Sport/ UWI HPC was “Pace Like Fire”. The programme traversed six islands of the Caribbean to identify the fastest bowlers between the ages of 16-22 (male and female) with raw pace. 10 males and 5 females were invited to enroll in the HPC for two years to develop their fast bowling gifts and released into regional franchises and West Indies teams.
The Faculty of Sport is also working with Cricket West Indies to offer accredited coaching qualifications to mitigate the reliance on English Cricket Board and Australian Cricket Board coaching programmes. In addition, 2019 will see the introduction of the first pitch preparation and turf maintenance certificate courses. The state of pitches in the Caribbean is widely regarded as a major challenge to the development of our players in the region.
About The UWI
For over 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and four campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, and an Open Campus. As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa including the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development; the Canada-Caribbean Studies Institute with Brock University; the Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES); the UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport.
As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. Times Higher Education ranked The UWI among the top 1,258 universities in world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018. The UWI was the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.
(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)
