Young Caribbean cricketers to be coached by childhood idols

Digicel on Tuesday announced a partnership with the biggest party in sport – the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) – to launch the inaugural Digicel CPL Youth Programme, which will see over 200 young aspiring cricketers across the region being trained by their local CPL franchise players and coaches.

The two-phased initiative, which consists of the Big Brother Programme and Take it to the Streets,  allows both Digicel and the CPL to give back to and nurture up and coming young talents from across the participating CPL tournament markets, including Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.

Each one-day clinic will consist of boys and girls, who will be taught the fundamentals of the game, in order to improve and hone their skills, while learning from the best in the sport. Not only will they be sharpening their cricketing skills, but also will be instilled with the intangible requirements it takes to be great in the sport.

Digicel’s head of sponsorship Ben Bradley said: “Sport is a major part of the Caribbean culture and we are staying true to our commitment of developing and nurturing athletes across the region. The kids are the focus here – we are merely providing the platform for them to express themselves and show their class – while learning from some of the world’s best.”

As the first youth partnership with Digicel, Damien O’Donohoe, CEO of Hero CPL, commented: “I’ve had the opportunity to watch and interact with some of these young talents across the region over the years and I can tell you they’re very promising. So, we’re very excited to be working with Digicel in this new way to help develop these kids, some of who will be playing on these fields in the future.”

The Big Brother programme kicked off in Barbados on Tuesday, July 25, while the Take it to the Streets/Take it to the Beach phase gets underway in August.