With a cricket season slated for 2023, High School Cricket League (SSCL) president Nigel Maraj wants to ensure student-athletes strike the right balance between academics and sports.
Maraj is expecting a big year of cricket, with the SSCL season coinciding with the return of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board’s domestic competitions, many of which will feature young cricketers.
However, he said SSCL will have to work with the TTCB to ensure that students are able to represent their school as well as the TTCB.
“As an organization, the holistic development of our student-athletes is of utmost importance and what we strive to do is balance their sporting activities with their physical, social, emotional and mental well-being. We don’t want a situation where students play a lot of cricket and lack investment in their studies,” explained Maraj.
With this in mind, Maraj said SSCL will maintain the rule where students are not allowed to play more than two days of cricket from Monday to Friday.
“This is not a new rule and has been around for about five years. We are not affecting their weekend. For example, in February when there is the TTCB InterZone competition with matches during the week, they will be allowed to play one match for TTCB and one for their school because we cannot influence a child’s dreams and aspirations because it is InterZone that TTCB use to select national youth teams,” the SSCL chief pointed out.
“We all know the importance of school in the community, so we need to work together with TTCB to make sure students can represent their school and TTCB.”
On December 20, the TTCB unveiled plans for the 2023 domestic season, which includes a four-team U-19 and U-16 tournament, as well as InterZone competitions for U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19. .
Meanwhile, the TTCB U-19 team will also compete in the Premiership Two Division South competitions which includes the two-day league, 50-over competition and T20 tournament.
The TTCB U-19 team competed in the same division when local cricket resumed in late February 2022.
“In our planning, we do not want to affect the education of students because this will be a priority for schools. It will take a lot of trickery and work with various sports organizations and the Ministry of Education, but the education of students is a priority,” said Maraj.
He also noted that SSCL was pushing for teachers and coaches in charge of school teams to become familiar with child protection and first aid issues.
“Covid has taught us that our teachers who are in the game must be familiar with several things, one of which is child protection. It is important that all our lecturers who go out with teams have this as part of their qualification.
“Secondly, we’re looking to see how we can get our coaches and teachers certified in first aid, because we don’t want a situation where a kid gets hurt and we don’t know what to do and they’re waiting for an ambulance. “, Maraj explained.
“We can’t overlook those things. We have to make sure that what we do can stand the test of time and we will do these things because it is the right thing to do. We know the rules, so we will try to instill the right values in our children.”
