The Sco­tia­bank Kid­dy crick­et pro­gramme is a unique de­vel­op­men­tal tool which has evolved over the past 15 years and has been proven to sig­nif­i­cant­ly en­hance the la­tent ath­let­ic and aca­d­e­m­ic skills of pri­ma­ry school pupils.

This was em­pha­sised by Az­im Bas­sarath, pres­i­dent of the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) when the 2015 edi­tion of the pro­gramme was of­fi­cial­ly launched at the Na­tion­al Crick­et Cen­tre in Bal­main on Sat­ur­day.

Al­so present were lead­ing of­fi­cials of the TTCB and the Sco­tia­bank T&T Foun­da­tion whose pa­tron, for­mer First La­dy, Za­lay­har Has­sanali nev­er fails to give sup­port and en­cour­age­ment to the ini­tia­tive.

Bas­sarath said the class­room el­e­ment along with camps in the sev­en ed­u­ca­tion­al dis­tricts in Trinidad; and a six-day na­tion­al camp planned for this year adds to the list of suc­cess­ful strate­gies be­ing in­tro­duced to en­hance the learn­ing ca­pa­bil­i­ties of the young­sters.

"Their out­door en­gage­ments are well-de­signed to cap­ture their imag­i­na­tion and in­spire their striv­ing for ex­cel­lence and the in­cul­ca­tion of so­cial and in­ter­ac­tive skills," said Bas­sarath.

He al­so praised the sup­port and spon­sor­ship of Sco­tia­bank over 15 un­bro­ken years which he says tells the sto­ry of a strong and sta­ble re­la­tion­ship per­me­at­ed with trust and con­fi­dence in the ad­min­is­tra­tion of the TTCB.

Al­so speak­ing at the launch, Gise­le Marfleet, chair­per­son of the Sco­tia­bank Foun­da­tion, a self-con­fessed "true crick­et fan" said she was proud that Sco­tia­bank was the ex­clu­sive spon­sor of the pro­gramme which has been teach­ing chil­dren the rudi­ments of the game, in­clud­ing bat­ting, bowl­ing, field­ing, and catch­ing.

Marfleet said the spon­sor­ship al­so in­cludes the pro­vi­sion of equip­ment and train­ing for teach­ers to coach the ba­sics of the game while en­com­pass­ing an aca­d­e­m­ic and de­vel­op­men­tal facet.

She said the Kid­dy Crick­et Pro­gramme rep­re­sents not on­ly the bank's com­mit­ment to the sport of crick­et but al­so the de­vel­op­ment of T&T's youth. "We re­main proud to be as­so­ci­at­ed with a feed­er pro­gramme such as this in which chil­dren not on­ly ac­quire an in­ter­est and pas­sion for play­ing crick­et, but al­so de­vel­op in­ter­per­son­al skills, self-con­fi­dence, and disclip­ine which are qual­i­ties they ben­e­fit from through­out their life­times," Marfleet said.

This year 50 schools are par­tic­i­pat­ing through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go, in all eight ed­u­ca­tion­al dis­tricts with 33 mak­ing their en­try for the first time for which Marfleet com­mend­ed the T&T Crick­et Board for their hard work and ded­i­ca­tion in mak­ing the pro­gramme more in­clu­sive.