Sri Lanka

In the summer of 2009 Cricket for Change (C4C) was commissioned by the ICC to set up four sustainable cricket development programmes in the Indian sub-continent by May 2011. These programmes were to be set up in conjunction with ICC partner charity Peace and Sport. The overall aim of these programmes is to show how cricket can be used as a force for good in areas of disadvantage and conflict.

C4C and Peace and Sport plan to run one programme in each of the following countries; Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The first of these was in Sri Lanka in February 2010.

The main aim of the programme is to identify 24 former child soldiers from the three Child Soldier Rehabilitation Camps in Sri Lanka and give them the opportunity to train as Cricket Peer Leaders. The programme will work in 4 stages and will enable the newly trained Peer Leaders set up Street20 cricket programmes Rehabilitation Camps.

  • October 2009 - First Visit

    A successful scoping visit by C4C took place in Sri Lanka between October 20th and 22nd 2009. The C4C team met with all of the main partners (including the ICC, Unicef, Peace and Sport, The British High Commission, UK Sport, Just in Time Group and Sri Lanka Cricket) in the proposed programme and also worked with a group of former child soldiers at Ambepussa Rehabilitation Camp.

  • February 2010 - Second Visit

    Cricket for Change run a week long intensive Cricket Peer Leader Training Programme which culminated in the official launch of the programme on the 26th February.

  • May 2010 - A few members of the C4C team headed back out to Sri Lanka following the success of the trip in February

The programme will work in 4 stages and will enable the newly trained Peer Leaders to set up Street20 cricket programmes back in the Rehabilitation Camps.

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A Diary from Sri Lanka - by Alex Bassan (Alex is a graduate of the C4C Apprenticeship and now C4C Development Coach)

Here is an excerpt from Alex’s diary he wrote during his trip to Sri Lanka….If you wish to read the full version, please follow the link at the bottom of this page.

Thursday 18th March 2010
………Team 1 managed to get to 8 ....team 2 got to 8 .....then team 1 got to 9..... then when team 2, with a speedy count got to number 12, they jumped up out of their seats running around the room like they had just struck gold!......This was the moment for me that I realised we had made a change.

You go back four days and these kids didn’t speak to each other, hardly made contact with us as coaches. It was a very quiet first day compared to now with all the smiling, laughing and being young leaders together.

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 View some of the photo's from Sri Lanka on our Flickr pages here

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