The Lesotho Cricket Association (LCA) was treated to a week of training by English coach Martin Sampson over the past week. Sampson is a partner of Lesotho cricket and, along with his son, delivered fun and engaging cricket sessions to 2 400 students from last week Tuesday until Tuesday this week.
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Sampson and his son left the country yesterday.
800 of the students were from Thamae Lesotho Evangelical Church in Southern Africa (LECSA), 1 200 were from Leqele Primary School and 400 students came from Liraoheleng Primary.
Sampson said his main reason for being in Lesotho was to share ideas on how to make cricket more fun and more interesting.
He said he appreciated the performance of Ntšeliseng, who was one of the participants in his coaching sessions.
Sampson said she was the youngest girl amongst the 50 selected students he had a session with on Saturday.
“Girls like Ntšeliseng proved that there is serious talent out there but we just have to go and find this talent. My God, what a talent! She could throw the ball, she could hit the ball and she could catch the ball,” Sampson beamed.
“It was also my pleasure to work with ‘Matšukulu Motloheloa, a Kick4Life coach and a member of the Lesotho national football squad (Mehalalitoe). She is an active footballer and a fantastic role model for these children,” he added.
Sampson said it was his pleasure to be in Lesotho, which he described as a peaceful and beautiful country.
He mentioned his connection with Lesotho.
“My old high school friend (Pete Fleming) is the founder of the charity, Kick4Life. When I was in high school, I used to play football and cricket with Pete Steve Fleming. It is a very nice thing that Steve created his career in football and I created my career in cricket as a volunteer,” Sampson said.
The president of LCA, Mohlouoa Sepolo, said he appreciated the time Sampson created to come to Lesotho and assist the association in developing cricket. He said Sampson was here in Lesotho in 2020 but due to the experience of Covid-19 at the time, the Englishman did not come to Lesotho for a while but finally returned this year.
Sepolo said Sampson’s visit was a six-month project to prepare for the visitor to come to the country. The preparations included the logistics in terms of mobilizing schools, clubs and transport. Sepolo said they conducted government schools because Sampson chose them over private schools.
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