ICC Academy School Cricket Tours
Imagine the positive impact an ICC Academy cricket tour could have on a promising individual player or your entire school team. It’s really no exaggeration to say that it could be a catalyst for the next generation of sporting greats. That’s because we’ve taken school cricket tours to whole new heights of excellence.
Expat Sport, official travel partner to the ICC Academy in Dubai offer a wide range of tailor-made school cricket tours, training camps and tournaments that are guaranteed to elevate your team to the next level and provide an experience and memories that will last a lifetime.
The concept is simple. Give school children, exactly the same player experience as that provided to cricketing professionals, and let them thrive.
Will Kitchen, ICC Academy General Manager, explains:
“For a school team or an academy team we try to make sure that our experience is exceptional. When they come here we treat them like an international side. So they get access to all the same venues, exactly the same service and experience that an international team gets.”
And that experience extends both on and off the pitch. With an illustrious track record of operating successful sporting tours, Expat Sport and ICC Academy will organise the whole trip for you. From all travel and accommodation details, through to facilitating a bespoke cricketing programme to meet your exact needs.
Visiting teams benefit from training and playing camps – including planning, management and scheduling of games and programme development for teams including matches and tournaments with local schools and club opposition. The programmes are designed to improve the all round aspects of a young player’s game.
Coaching pace bowlers toward consistent line and length, as well as movement off the seam, optimum run ups etc, while spin bowlers are helped to refine a variety of deliveries and how to exploit a turning pitch with cracks and footholds. When to bowl round or over the wicket, as well as to different handed batters. Naturally, ideal field placings come into both bowling styles, all of course in the interests of boosting wicket taking rates and an increase in maiden overs and ‘dot’ balls.
Batters in turn are developed into more elegant and effective stroke players, focused on footwork back and front, along with the physiological power mechanics behind the most efficient of striking of the ball, leading to enhanced runs scoring and rising batting averages.
Advanced fielding athleticism, slip and boundary catching as well as throwing distance and accuracy, and last but not least wicket keeping technique.
Finally, learning to read the differing forms of the game, through exposure to specialist tactics employed in Twenty20, One-Day and other formats, essential insights into elite cricket tactics and above all key lessons on how to win!
And all this is topped off with a range of unforgettable excursions highlighting the wonders of Dubai. Whether it be a visit to a world-class water park or the white sandy beaches of the Arabian Gulf seashore, a camel trek through the dunes of the UAE’s magical interior desert, or a dazzling evening cultural show, your tour will be jam packed with fun and entertainment.
This is no ordinary school sporting trip. Your team will be trained in one of the best equipped, and most professionally staffed cricketing academies on the planet. The ICC Academy has been purpose designed and built with one thing in mind; sporting excellence. And it’s no surprise that international superstars of the game come here to hone their skills so the opportunities for your school cannot be underestimated.
Darren Sammy, World Cup winning West Indies T20 former captain, is full of praise for the ICC Academy:
“You can get whatever you want here, fantastic nets, different pitches from different places around the world. You have the gym, the indoor nets. You have whatever you want for preparation.”
And he’s not the only star of the game who is full of praise for the venue. England bowling legend, Darren Gough has only superlatives for the whole experience:
“The first time I came here I couldn’t believe it. Expat Sport always look after me, it’s absolutely superb. The Ghaya Grand Hotel is right next door to the ICC Academy… Everything is on your doorstep. Look at that pitch, it’s absolutely beautiful…it’s a fantastic venue.”
Visiting coaches and schools have also been full of praise. Jonty Bawson, Travel and Sport South Africa tour operator, knows that when he comes to Dubai, Expat Sport will look after him and his school teams.
“I don’t have to do anything. I bring my team here. Everything is done by Expat Sport. The pitches are great, the coaching is great, it’s organised. Everything was just in place and Expat Sport really know what they are doing.”
The fully integrated professional relationship between Expat Sport and ICC Academy are a big part of why we can offer such a high level of service to our customers.
Will Kitchen, ICC Academy General Manager, adds:
“Expat Sport are really important to us because they enable us to have a specialist arm in terms of our travel operations. They are really our right hand man. They’ve been a crucial part of why we are becoming the most popular cricket destination in the world. Without Expat Sport we wouldn’t have been able to do that.”
The development of the professional game over the past few decades has taken cricket and cricketers to another level in terms of fitness, skill-set and tactical awareness and an Expat Sport school tour to the ICC Academy will give both your players and coaches a fast track to higher performance levels, and by consequence more fun and more satisfaction during training and matches. Without question the fun aspect is important to us and our clients.
Asked about their time on their Expat Sport school tour, two of the boys from South Africa were eager to sing its praises:
“We learn a lot, and I must say it will be sad to leave Dubai, because we love it here,”
said one, while the second went on to add:
“I don’t even have words for it. It’s just stunning. Expat Sport has been brilliant and really looked after us.”
For us, the combination of an enriching travel experience to the beautiful Arabian Gulf, a highly professional and friendly tour provider, and an unparalleled sporting experience at the ICC Academy make our school tours an opportunity not to be missed.
Click here to know more about our school cricket tours
