Lima Cricket & Football Club has introduced cricket to its Talleres de Verano – Summer School – programme of sporting activities for 2102 and it has proved to be extremely popular. Cricket Peru’s Development Officer, Nick Barsby, has been running the morning classes from Monday to Thursdays and has seen the number of participants – both boys and girls, ranging in age from 6 to 12 years old – increase rapidly, so that some classes have up to 40 participants.

Building on this interest, the plan is to create junior teams from amongst these young, learner cricketers, to play amongst themselves and against school teams, such as Markham College and Hiram Bingham.

The summer school runs from January to mid-February, while school children are enjoying their longest holiday of the year. Other games in the programme include the more traditional Peruvian sports of football, volleyball and swimming.

It is with great pleasure that we can report that the oldest man to represent Peru at an ICC tournament, John Bell, has been nominated for the ICC Americas Volunteer of the Year Award, having dedicated many years – and countless bottles of wine – to the cause of promoting cricket in Peru.

John learnt the game in the bucolic setting of England’s Home Counties and has brought that sense of unhurried tradition and joviality to the Lima cricket scene over the past decade. His contribution to cricket has been both with adults, as captain of Eidgenossen in the national T20 league and holder of five caps for the Llamas, Peru’s international men’s team; and with juniors, as a cricket coach at the school where he also works as a teacher.

Here is an extract from the nomination:

‘John Bell has been a stalwart for Cricket Peru over the past eight years.  However, especially this year his contribution to the development of Cricket in the juniors has risen to new levels and I believe he would be a worthy recipient of the Volunteer of the Year Award for the ICC Americas.  John is a teacher at Cambridge College on the outskirts of Lima.  This is a small British Peruvian School and with John’s convincing (of the school) and with the help of ICC regional funding in 2009 we were able to install the first artificial wicket in Peru (we now have three others).  Since then,John has steadily been promoting and developing cricket at the school.

This year Cambridge College provided representatives to both the U13 Peruvian team in the Cricket South America (CSA) Championships in April and the U15 Peruvian team in the ICC Americas U15 South Championships.  Since then he has continued to encourage and develop the boys from this school; and it looks like they will make up a large percentage of the U13 Peru team to tour Chile for the CSA Championships at Easter 2012.

John’s enthusiasm and attention to detail has endeared him to all of the parents of the new players and they have been the most reliable trainers and players thoughout the year.

I nominate John with pride and confidence.’

Many congratulations and we have our fingers crossed that the ICC Americas will appreciate his immense contribution as much as Cricket Peru does.

Running the camp is Andy Pick, former coach of England A and now the ICC Americas High Performance Officer, and Wendell Coppin of Barbados, who is the ICC Americas Regional Development Officer. The camp will focus on fitness, technical development and match situations, with practical and audio-visual components.

To see the full programme of activities, click here.

• The successful participation of the Llamas, the men’s international side, in the ICC Americas Division III Championship in Costa Rica, in March, 2011.
• The first ever participation of a Peruvian Women’s team, the Vicuñas, in an international tournament – the South American Women’s Championship in Brasilia, in August, 2011.
• The successful inaugural hosting of an ICC Junior Event in Lima, with the ICC Americas (South) Under-15 Tournament, which moreover saw Peru win the T20 tournament.

Looking forward to continued development in 2012, there were three changes to the Cricket Peru committee, following the public vote:

• Kenny Steen takes over as Treasurer
• Chris Mahoney comes on board as an Ex Oficio Committee Member
• Chandan Jain is also a new Ex Oficio Committee Member

We wish these three, and all the incumbent committee members, all the best for what promises to be another exciting year for cricket in Peru.

To read the full minutes of the AGM, including the Awards for the 2011 season, please click here.