Cricket Wellington is excited to further increase its focus on the community game with the introduction of a new position solely focused on the development and support of junior and youth coaches.

As research highlights, the quality of coaching directly influences a young cricketers participation experience. To build on the growth in playing numbers throughout the capital in recent seasons and deliver on our ambition of “having more people playing and loving cricket” a new full-time Coach Development Manager role will be introduced from May 2021.

The role will be part of the existing community team at Cricket Wellington and will lead the strategic direction of community coaching within clubs and schools. It follows the decision to remove club affiliation fees for the 2020/21 season in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the commitment to creating a strong and vibrant community game.

Cricket Wellington has seen considerable growth in the coach development space since the 2017/18 season.

There are now over 450 unique coach registrations in the Capital, in the 2017/18 season there were zero, and over 200 of these coaches are now fully qualified within the New Zealand Cricket coaching framework.

“We’ve been immensely proud to see considerable growth in the number of coaches that we have been able to educate and support over the past few years,” said Cricket Wellington Head of Community Cricket Matt Wills.

“A full-time dedicated resource will enable us to ensure all coaches have access to coach education and mentoring opportunities.”

Over 200 coaches have engaged in coach education opportunities during the 2020/21 season including specialist clinics focusing on batting, bowling, fielding and wicketkeeping.

Over 100 coaches are now registered to local colleges creating a new coaching community which, before 2017/18 did not formally exist. These coaches can now access a suite of online resources, register for coaching clinics, and receive accreditation as per the New Zealand Cricket coaching framework.

The Coach Development Manager role will continue Cricket Wellington’s strategic alignment of positions and priority functions for Cricket Wellington, with Community Managers aligned to Women and Girls, Participation, Capability, Club Development, Umpiring and Facilities and now the further enhancement of Coach Development within the region.

Applications for the role are now open and can be completed here.

Article added: Thursday 04 March 2021