IRISH CRICKET/Weekly Column: If Ireland is ever going to really take her place among the leading sporting nations in the world, the emphasis must be on the identification, encouragement and promotion of young talent.
Lord knows how many potential sporting stars are growing up in the disadvantaged areas of our cities and larger towns, whose talents cannot be identified.
Other countries have long recognised the necessity and the rewards of giving sporting youth its chance. The Australian Institute of Sport is just one example, and it is hardly an accident that Australia ranks among the world's greatest sporting nations.
Clontarf Cricket Club is not located in a disadvantaged area. But the club, like others in Leinster, does all it can to attract girls and boys from its hinterland, and on certain week nights several hundred youngsters turn up to learn the rudiments of cricket.
This season, the club has gone a step further by establishing a Cricket Academy for some of its promising younger players. Keith Lewis, long-serving Clontarf stalwart as player and administrator, admits the initial idea was his, but emphasises that he has nothing to do with the running of the academy.
Clontarf, in company with many another cricket club, does impressively well at youth and schoolboy levels; the club has won an enormous number of trophies over the years, and the same goes for the Leinster schoolboy sides. But after that comes a falling off and the playing careers of many youngsters seem to decline.
Says Lewis: "I was having a drink with one of the parents at the end of last season and he said to me 'What are you doing for my son?' And I said back to him:'What's your son going to do for us?', and from that exchange was born the notion of some sort of an academy.
"I bounced the idea off Deryck Vincent and he decided this was the answer, and he fundamentally took the concept on," adds Lewis.
Former international cricketer Vincent is now the director of the academy, Brian Nolan is the fitness adviser and Thinnus Fourie, Clontarf's South African professional, is coach to the academy as well as to the club.
Vincent wrote to eight young cricketers aged in their mid-to-late teens to outline the concept and aims of the academy and to ask them if they were willing to give the necessary commitment. The eight youngsters now involved are Conor D'Arcy, Richie Reid, Bill Coghlan, Eoghan Ryan, Chris Cahill, Shane Finnegan, Ross Maybury and James Flynn, some of whom have already played on the Clontarf first XI this season.
Vincent also arranged a meeting with the parents to outline the academy's aims and, hardly surprisingly, the response has been positive. The eight chosen was just a random figure, which could change in the future.
The academy is based on five principles, the first four of which are: technical, physical, practical and mental. To these Vincent added a fifth - that the chosen eight must be prepared to put something back into the club.
The academy began at Easter when the members were assessed under the five principles and their cricketing skills were examined.
Then a programme was laid out for each individual which is assessed on a weekly basis. Fourie played a key part in the new initiative; when he was home in Pretoria last winter he went to his local academy and was given invaluable advice by its director.
In the past few weeks, Fourie's father Peter, himself a sports psychologist, visited Dublin, met all the academy members and gave them a day on a programme entitled "My Best Self", which sets mental goals and deals with mental preparation.
So far, the Clontarf Academy doesn't have a sponsor, though such a backer would be useful.
"The main purpose is to give these kids the chance to do their best, to push them a bit quicker and get them into the first XI and to encourage them to reach their optimum," says Lewis. "The concept is good for Clontarf and is good for the youngsters, and Deryck Vincent is very happy with their attitude overall."
