Mr Ehsan Mani, President-elect of the International Cricket Council (ICC), Sunday morning expressed his delight at the successful holding of a week-long Bob Woolmer Special Coaching Course for National Coaches under the auspices of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC).

National Coaches at Bob Woolmer's coaching course Photo © PCB

Mr Mani, who flew into Lahore only to attend the certificate distribution ceremony, said: "I am particularly delighted that this course has been held in Pakistan at a time when a number of countries have expressed reservations at visiting Pakistan.

"I would like to thank Mr Bob Woolmer, his associates and all the attendees for their trust in the ACC and the Pakistan Cricket Board.

"I also look forward to the ICC Development Committee meeting which has been scheduled to be held in December in Pakistan.

"This gives a very clear message to the international cricket community that cricket in Pakistan is open for business."

Delegates from nearly 12 countries, including two from India (Roger Binny and Dr Vece Paes) attended the course under the supervision of Bob Woolmer, ICC's high performance manager. His three foreign assistants also accompanied him.

Mr Mani said ACC's Development Programme had a comprehensive development plan with the objectives and targets focused on developing self reliance in coaching, umpiring, cricket administration, ground and pitch preparation, physical fitness and grass root and high performance development in the non-Test playing ACC member countries.

He said all that required huge financial resources and the ICC was committed to allocate 50 percent of the profits from the ICC Champions Trophy. He said Asia had a share of about approximately $50million for its development projects up to 2007.

He said this course was the first of a number of courses planned by the ACC. He said next year, the ACC with conjunction with the Australian Cricket Academy would be holding a similar course in India next year in January.

Mr Mani said the ICC was very pleased with the progress, after a slow start, that the ACC had made with its development programme.

Mr Mani also thanked the Pakistan Cricket Board, on behalf of the ICC, for their unqualified support in the organization of this course.

Bob Woolmer said he thoroughly enjoyed his visit to Pakistan and looked forward to vsiting again. "It has been a wonderful experience working here. The hospitality had been fantastic and the response from the coaches has been excellent. I am confident that after this course, the vision of the attendees would broaden and they would be able to contribute better towards the promotion of the game."

Zakir Hussain Syed, ACC's development manager, termed the course as a "huge success". He observed that the biggest achievement from this course was the participation of the two Indian delegates.

"At a time when Pakistan and India don't enjoy cricket relations, the presence of two high profile Indian cricket officials can be termed as a big achievement. This not only confirms the importance of the event, but might also help in reviving the relations. And if that happens, these two officials would be termed as the pioneers," Zakir Syed said.

Samiul Hasan
GM Media
October 27, 2002

© PCB