World Champions

Fantasy Bob sends his warm congratulations to Cricket Scotland on being judged by the ICC as having the world's best Best Overall Cricket Development Programme.   (Any impression that FB may have given at any time that the ICC were anything other than a fine clear-sighted body of individuals with the wider interests of world cricket deep in their hearts at all times is wholly mistaken.  And they are looking again at the structure of CWC 2015 - but that is another story).  

Cricket Scotland's community programme is nationwide and has many layers and is stimulating a wider interest in cricket across the nations -  for example, in the past year 468 schools have competed in cup competitions, there have been 56 Primary School Festivals, 58 umpires have taken Level 1 exams, a new development pathway and much else.  Good on them and the vast army of volunteers and cricket lovers that have made it possible.  Well done.  The success of Carlton's junior section shows what can be done.

FB in his capacity as Carlton 4th XI skipper is of course an inspirational mentor to many of the junior players in the club.  Every week his heart is warmed by the tributes he overhears his young charges pay to him.  Words such as 'What on earth is the old goat on about now?' or 'Do you think they had TV when he was young?'  bring a lump of sentiment to his throat. 

It is time he put something back, so on the basis of this experience he wishes to suggest to the powers that be in Cricket Scotland that the next phase of their world beating development programme should contain the following skill development modules for our younger players:

Module 1 - Back put play. This module will assist the player to learn that kit taken out of the kit store is unable to put itself back where it was found.  Boundary flags have similar static properties and generally need to be encouraged to return to their keeping place after the match.  Simple drills to perfect this skill can be practised at home, including putting discarded clothes into the laundry basket, putting X-box discs back in their cases, putting the top back on the milk and returning the contents of drawers from the floor where they have been flung in an ill-tempered search for your iPhone headphones.

Module 2 - Positional sense   This is vital to cricketing success - this module will help the player understand that when the skipper says 10 yards in from the boundary he means just that and not 10 yards closer to the batter after every ball.  Scraping a huge cross on the grass is not encouraged since it invokes the wrath of teh doughty groundsman and use of sat nav on iPhone is forbidden. 

Module 3 - Keeping the book Scoring is an essential part of the game - this module will encourage players to build on the basic skill of recording one ball correctly so that they record each ball in an over and not just those they notice or feel like when they are not tweeting or facebooking.  Once the over is mastered a rigorous development regime can be undertaken which will deliver the higher level skill of marking a whole innings.

Module 4 - Team spirit.  This module will enable players to recognise that cricket is a team game - and success for one is success for all - also other players particularly the skipper are likely to want a piece of chocolate cake so don't take the whole ******* thing yourself.

Once players master these skills, Scottish cricket is ready to take on the world.