BSP School Kriket Continues to grow in PNG

The biggest sports development program in PNG just got bigger with the official launch of BSP School Kriket in Madang Province.

A crowd of approximately 180 were on hand to witness the launch of the program held at the Holy Spirit Primary School. The launch included speeches from a number of Honoured Guests from around the Madang region and a display of the program with clinics conducted by Cricket PNG's Madang based BSP School Kriket team and the Holy Spirit Primary Students.

BSP branch Manager for Madang Cecilia Passum was on hand to formally open the event, and was excited about the partnership that has been formed with Cricket and BSP Bank. "Our bank is the community bank and all the programs we support are designed to strengthen our community, and School Kriket is a program that definitely helps our community", said Ms. Passum.

The BSP School Kriket Program will be running its first phase in Madang for the remainder of 2010 and aims to reach approximately 10 schools and just over 3000 students.

Regional Cricket Manager Bobby Alau is excited by the challenge of bringing Kriket to a non-traditional cricket town like Madang. "It's going to be hard work but I think BSP School Kriket is a program that will really change the way people in the community view the game of cricket"

With the official launch of the program in Madang, BSP School Kriket is now operating in 10 provinces across the country. Reaching deep beyond the boundaries of traditional cricketing areas such as NCD, Central, Morobe and Milne Bay provinces, the program now operates in the Eastern and Western Highlands provinces, New Ireland, West New Britain, Oro and now in Madang.

Cricket PNG and BSP are now extremely close to reaching the 50, 000 participant milestone but as Bobby Alau said in Madang, "We should be counting smiles, because that's what really matters".