Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Monty Lynch’s Mal Skills coaching continues
Lynch gives a demonstration to his attentive young charges at the National Gymnasium yesterday.
U-15 youths benefit from 1-day Gymnasium session
An enthusiastic group of under-15 youths yesterday benefited from a One-Day coaching session at the National Gymnasium conducted by former England ODI and Guyana middle order batsman Monty Lynch and another session is planned for Sunday at the same venue.
Lynch, who represented his adopted country against the West Indies with little success in 3 ODIs in 1988, described yesterday’s session, which was held from 09:00hrs to 13:00hrs and which attracted teenagers from Linden, West Demerara and Georgetown, as a success. He informed that from June he hopes to set up his own Academy in West Demerara since by then he is expected to acquire his own venue.
Lynch played the majority of his 359 First Class matches in England for Surry and later Gloucestershire after migrating from Guyana as a child and also played for Guyana at the First Class level in the 1980s.
The former ODI batsman now spends five months each year in Guyana promoting his Mal Skills sports gear business and coaching youths, especially in the West Demerara area where he resides here.
The 51-year-old Lynch told Kaieteur Sports yesterday that he plans to cater for under-9, U-11, U-13 and U-15 age groups from all three counties in Guyana from next year and extend his programme to 4-day sessions for each age group throughout the entire August vacation period.
The Guyanese Level 2 Coach who works with the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, England, has been conducting his Mal Skills Coaching sessions for the last four years and says there is lots of talent in Guyana but more needs to be done, especially on the technical and mental aspects of cricket at the under-13 level if Guyana’s general cricket is to show meaningful improvement.
“We have so many talented youngsters around but without knocking anybody it is disappointing that the Guyana (Cricket) has not organized Christmas camps for under-13s and under-11s now that the kids are home on holiday,” Lynch said.
The attractive stroke player who played the last of his 5 First Class matches for Guyana against Jamaica at Bourda in 1983, lamented the fact that there is so much in place in terms of facilities and systems in places like India and Pakistan for pre-teen cricketers and feels that if those who control cricket in Guyana does not begin to focus more on that age group we will continue to be left behind the rest of the cricket world.
“Mal Skills has been operating for the past 17 years and the response in Guyana has been extremely good. I focus on the Mental, Technical and physical aspects of cricket without giving the kids too much of endurance running and sprinting routines since at this age it tires them out and sometimes even scares them away for training sessions. What I do is plenty of fielding and catching drills which gives the youngsters the same amount of physical work without them realizing it and with them having fun doing it,” Lynch explained.
His son is also a level 2 coach and is involved in the Mal Skills sessions.
The former National batsman who played 6 matches for the Rebel West Indies team in South Africa in 1983, said he has gotten a lukewarm response from the GCB and hopes that next year, the key executives in the governing body for cricket in Guyana will place more emphasis on coaching at the U-15 level and use qualified personnel available to them.
Lynch, who played for Guyana in Clive Lloyd’s 1983 Shell Shield championship winning team, can be contacted on telephone number 276-1396 to book spots for his 2010 Academy. (Sean Devers)
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