Introduction to Cricket sessions in Viennese primary school

Siva Nadarajah, the ACA's Sportlicher Leiter (Director of Cricket), is to present cricket to 250 schoolchildren aged between eight and ten at the Volksschule Markomannenstrasse 9(a primary school), in Vienna's 22nd district. The school is located almost within six-hitting distance of Concordia CC's ground, which hosted its first matches in 2002, and which will be one of the venues for the 2003 ECC Trophy, to be held once again in Austria. The venture has been possible thanks to the generous support of the school's headmistress Frau Gertraude Oppel and the school's parents association. The venture follows up Concordia CC's existing venture with the Vienna Bilingual Middle School (VBS), whose pupils form the core of Austria's youth cricket teams.

A youth cricket development programme has been been running in various guises in Austria for the last ten years, with three of the original intake of twenty schoolchildren being established cricketers, with Tim Simpson, Erwin Grasinger (both Vienna CC) and Robert Sturm (Concordia CC) all having played for the National Team and all expected to play in February's ECC Indoor Championships in Herning, Denmark.

The event, taking place on 5th and 6th December throughout the school day be supported by Dave Gelling, who has been assigned to Austria, Slovenia and Croatia as part of the European Development Plan's Regional Coaching Initiative, and who will also be running a coaching course the following week in Vienna. Youth cricket in Austria has greatly benefitted from the support provided by the European Cricket Council's European Development Programme.