SMK Seri Pekan in Pahang has been officiated as the new Center of Excellence for cricket.
The official announcement was held in SMK Seri Pekan and were attended by the Ministry of Education’s Sports Director Dr Mehander Singh, Director of Pahang State Education Department Dato Rosdi Ismail, Pekan District Education Department Dr Haji Tajuddin, Director of Pahang State Sports Council Mohamed Rashdan bin Mohamed Razali, President of Malaysian Cricket Association (MCA) Mr Mahinda Vallipuram as well as President of Pahang Cricket Association Dr K. Sivakumar.
SMK Seri Pekan was chosen due to their unwavering efforts in developing cricket at the school level since 2002. To further support them, MCA had sent coaches to the school to train their young cricketers.
This strong cooperation led to SMK Seri Pekan’s win in the first National Schools Championships organized by MCA just last September.
Malaysian cricket has made a number of breakthroughs in the past few months, where they are now ranked 26th in the world.
They have also won a medal for all divisions at the SEA Games with a gold in the Men’s 50overs, while the women’s team will be playing at the World Cup qualifiers for the first time this.
All this success was achieved with the cooperation and commitment from schools, teachers, district and state education offices as well as the support from the Malaysian Ministry of Education.
To encourage more schools to follow in SMK Seri Pekan’s footsteps, MCA is introducing new fun formats to schools and neighborhoods so that there will be more participation – to further develop cricket into a core sport in Malaysia.
For this to be executed with success, MCA will be hoping to receive further support from the Ministry of Education.
