MILDURA’S young cricketers swapped school books for cricket bats as part of the Australian Cricket Institute’s (ACI) annual school holiday clinic at Nichols Point Cricket Club.
Now running for a third year, the initiative brings together girls and boys aged from 10 to 15 to practise a series of beginner and more advanced drills over three days from Tuesday to Thursday.
ACI coach Adam Thomson said the goal of the clinic was for kids “to enjoy their cricket (and) get as much improvement as they can out of their game”.
With an underlying philosophy that the cricketers improve their game through the correct repetition of skills, the coaches had girls and boys practising drop ball hits – where players could practise drives and sweeps – and playing games where batters would have to score 20 runs off 18 balls by evading fielders within the nets.
The Given the diversity of learners and experienced players, Thomson said the clinic was achieving what it set out to do.
“Kids keep coming back year after year, which is probably the best indication of how well it goes.”
