Although our WCB coaches are familiar faces in clubs, schools and communities across Warwickshire, some of our other more office based staff are less known. Nita Chagar is our new Business Support Officer (part time) and she’s the lynchpin of WCB’s administration and communications. Nita has taken time out of her busy day to talk about her role at WCB and her longstanding connection with cricket. It’s time to ‘Meet Nita’…..
What does your role at WCB involve?
As the team’s Business Support Officer, I work across the team providing support in an administrative capacity. A large part of my time is spent helping Andy Turnbull organising and administrating WCB holiday camps. I also provide some support on the clubs’ affiliation side to Andy Wyles. Generally, I am the first port of call for any queries. This is a new role and a key objective given to me is to help the team work together more efficiently, to help monitor that we are doing everything we are supposed to, and to improve communications internally and externally.
What do you most enjoy about your role?
I really like the variation and that no two days are the same. I never know what to expect when I log on in the morning. It’s always busy and there’s lots going on.
I also love the feeling that we are making a difference to young people and minority groups through our cricket camps, work in schools and community programmes. On the administration side, I get to liaise directly with parents and carers, so I enjoy hearing the positive feedback about the great work we are doing as a team.
What was it like starting a new job just before the pandemic?
I had only been in the office for five days before lockdown started – on my sixth day I was told not to return to the office the following week. It was a big shock to begin with as I didn’t know the team that well yet and wasn’t fully familiar with the role. I found working remotely a bit daunting at first but Zoom helped a lot and I was able to use it to get to know the team better. I was anxious at the beginning that everything was so much slower, particularly in terms of my understanding of the scope of the role, but the whole team adapted and in difficult circumstances I think we achieved more than we thought was possible.
What are your connections with cricket?
I am very familiar with cricket, having grown up in a cricketing family. My father played cricket in Uganda when he was a young man. Growing up in North London, we only had one television in the house and my dad watched a lot of cricket. I remember sitting next to him on the sofa as a small girl and learning the basics by asking questions about the game.
I was always interested in cricket and when I was at junior school we got the chance to play cricket just once. I remember the teacher saying, “Let’s try cricket as a change from rounders,” and being really excited because I was one of the few children who was familiar with the sport. I was asked to bowl an over and remember getting three people out in those six balls. I was delighted this was something I could do, but sadly I never got the opportunity again as that was the only time we ever played cricket at school. That’s why it’s so nice for me to see in this job how we are creating opportunities for children, minority groups and under-represented parts of our community to play cricket, and for them to have the chances I didn’t have.
I also married into a cricketing family. My husband, Sap, is a keen cricketer and coaches both girls’ and boys’ teams at Walmley CC. His brother Onkar played cricket for Warwickshire, so the whole family is into cricket. Our son Josh and daughter Saiya both also play cricket at Walmley CC. Josh has just started to play senior cricket and is really enjoying the experience. He is gutted the cricket season has ended now.
In summary, when you put all the pieces together, this is the perfect job for me. Everyone I know tells me this job was made for me. It suits the passion of our whole family – I actually think my husband is quite jealous! I am very happy to be doing what I am doing and feel I am in a great position to help the WCB move forward; in particular providing young people and under-represented groups with the opportunities to play and enjoy cricket that I didn’t have when I was growing up.
