(Kevin Klein writes, photos Sanjay Goyal)

Cyprus Cricket Association (CCA) enjoyed the tremendous benefit of having the assistance of Terry Holt at its youth development coaching programme that is being offered at the Happy Valley facilities at Happy Valley Episkopi on 22 November 2008.

Terry is the current director of the Cricket Centre at Lancashire County Cricket in England and among his many accomplishments is that he has coached some of the best known cricketers to play for England in the international arena. Terry can describe with conviction how he has been able to work with such illustrious names such as Michael Atherton and Andrew Flintoff who have both captained England in recent years. Terry brings a wealth of international experience to our efforts and the benefits are felt by the eager young players and the coaches alike. Even a short shower of life giving rain during the session was not enough to chase the participants under cover during his two hour coaching clinic.

Terry was kind enough to offer his services to CCA even though he was on the island with the intention of enjoying a short well deserved break at his holiday retreat in Pafos. CCA Chairman Kevin Klein jokes in saying that "It is not beneath our dignity to exploit the charms of the island of Aphrodite if we are able to bring these skills to the advantage of our ambitious youth development programme". CCA has enjoyed several benefits from our island being an attractive holiday destination for well known and experienced sports personalities who have been prepared to give up their holiday time to support the cricket development objectives of CCA.

In recent years we have had the support of Terry Holt and Richard Cox who is part of the Warwickshire Training and Development Programme and is also a development office with the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Europe. CCA is an affiliate member of the ICC and enjoys a great deal of financial and material support from the ICC Europe Development Programme and the support of the European Cricket Council of which Cyprus is also a member. The development of cricket into more regions has enhanced the status of CCA as the sole recognised representative of cricket in Cyprus. CCA now has established credentials to become a representative body under the auspices of KOA (the governing body for sports administration in Cyprus).

The youth development clinic is the extension of the youth development programme that has been conducted in recent years on facilities made available by British Forces at Happy Valley in Episkopi. CCA has been most fortunate to enjoy the use of the facilities at Happy valley while efforts are undertaken to establish further facilities and pitches in the various regions of the Republic where cricket is played. Whilst it is undeniable that cricket found its roots in the expatriate communities around the bases, it is equally evident that these origins have provided the platform from which to extend the sport and the spirit of cricket to the broader community and that Cyprus has since been able to field teams in European competitions with full compliance with the nationality requirements that are required by the European competitions and the CCA principles of ensuring that our international representative sides are populated with players who have true roots in Cyprus. It is now part of the development requirement that we start developing suitable Greek expressions for such cricketspeak as "silly mid on" "googly" and many other technical terms associated with a mature international sport. CCA is also the custodian of the movement to establish cricket as an Olympic sport for the 2020 Olympics. This massive development means that Cyprus Cricket as an Olympic sport will need to develop teams that would be truly representative of a proud Olympic history in Cyprus.

The provision of coaching facilities and the development of pitches and paying facilities across the Republic are supported by these initiative and accelerate the programme to achieve the ambitious goals set by CCA.