The Devon Cricket Board – Coaches Association.

 The sudden withdrawal of Cricket Foundation funding for our Workshop Programme created major financial problems and pressure. The notification came two days before we were physically running two workshops and our budget was thrown into disarray. The inclusion of Child Protection and First Aid modules along with CRB checks on the Level I has improved the course but created additional administration and expense. It had been originally intended to bid for Foundation funding to set off the extra costs of these modules but that opportunity was lost with the withdrawal of Cricket Foundation monies. However the West and East regions came to our rescue when Awards 4 All grants enabled them to subsidise our courses. By the end of the 2003/2004 winter four Level I courses will have been run – a record for the county. The annual Level II was oversubscribed and proved to be another successful venture. Along with all the other counties Devon will have to come to terms with the major revision of the Level I course that is being undertaken to include wholesale changes including Long Term Athletic Development (LTAD). These changes will have a serious effect on our coach education ethos and it is likely that we will run more Introductory Courses to assist the grass root coach. Due to injury and a shortage of courses we were unable to increase the number of our Level III coaches. It is our intention to extend our Staff Coach base by encouraging and assisting our better younger coaches to qualify. In conjunction with Active Sport the four regions have now completed the enlarged District programme with a greater inclusion of outside assessments and the under 11s. Without doubt the involvement of Active Sport has been very beneficial for Devon Cricket. Three of our Staff Coaches attended Staff Coach 2003 at Warwick University in September. Ten Devon coaches attended the National Conference -Coaching Through The Lifecycle -at Warwick University. CRB checking progresses and the ECB Welfare of Young People in Cricket Policy – Safe Hands is now available on the web. We acquired four Gasp coaching programme for the use by our one to one coaches. Coach mentoring has a high priority in our programme. Our accounts reveal a substantial loss which reflects the delay in receiving the Cricket Foundation funding along with the payment of course expenses for both the previous and next financial years plus the purchase of the Gasp systems.

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