Heeding the resounding calls from our cricketing public, the administrators of the game of cricket in Guyana, the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), has responded in excellent fashion by attracting one of the most accomplished Guyana and West Indies batsmen Alvin Kallicharran to come and work with our youths in Guyana.All Guyanese would recall the excellent performances of our Under-15 and Under-19 teams last year in the Regional West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) tournaments and the GCB has pulled off another major coup in being able to secure the expert services of none other than our own Alvin Kallicharran.

The GCB is very serious of its cricket development programme in spite of all the challenges being faced by this Board and the relentless ridicule vented by a few misguided persons. GCB has now expanded its cricket development programme with this bold move.

This is the first time that the administration would be bringing an ‘overseas coach’ to our shores to be part of our youth cricket development programme.

He would share his expertise with our youths during the period, April 5th to May 4th 2015. Kalli is going to work mainly with the Under-15s and the under-17s and will travel around the country to conduct special clinics at various locations with the main objective being to motivate and galvanise the youths back towards the game of cricket.

The GCB has strategically planned Kallicharran’s visit to coincide with the conclusion of the under-15 and under-17 inter-county tournaments and a few short months away from the WICB Regional tournaments in the summer.

The GCB in a release further noted that they remain steadfastly committed to rolling out its strategic plan for the complete overhaul of our cricket as we continue to build on our successes from last year and prepare our teams to be more successful this year and beyond.

Another very innovative experiment started last year by the GCB, which has already been reaping rich dividends, is having the Under-19 team play in the Senior Inter-county tournaments as the 4th team.

The experiment is being replicated at the other age-group levels with the under-15 team playing as the 4th team in the Inter-county under-17 tournament and the under-7 team play as the 4th team in the Inter-county Under-19 tournament.

According to the GCB, this innovation provides the lower age group to compete at a higher level thus forcing them to elevate the standard of their game and can only benefit them and improve their confidence whilst preparing them for higher level competitiveness.

“Kallicharran has always been recognised as one of the most talented and complete batsmen of his time and has conquered many top notch bowlers around the world, both spinners and faster bowlers, during his illustrious cricketing career which spanned from 1966 to 1992” the GCB.

Kallicharran was the first youth team captain for Guyana that participated in the Regional tournament in 1966, and he made his debut for the West Indies team in 1972 against New Zealand where he registered his maiden century in his very first Test match. He scored his second Test century before that series ended and chalked up six centuries in his first 22 tests.

He plied his trade in the English County circuit for several years playing for Warwickshire until 1992 which surely enhanced his game over the years. Kallicharran turned out for the Australian State of Queensland for a while and Transvaal in South Africa.

His Test career was cut short in 1981 at the ripe age of 32 when he surely had several more years of quality cricket left in him. He played 6 Tests with 4,399 runs at an average close to 45 and 12 centuries. Kallicharran possibly had the record for the most 90s during his Test playing career.

He also finished his first-class career with a phenomenal 32,000 runs and 87 centuries just missing the 100 centuries mark by one; stranded on 99! Kallicharran was the Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1983.