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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
MCC launches ‘cricket's got talent'
'I love how old school this is, it's cut-throat,' says Graeme Swann, the great England off-spinner, with his trademark enthusiasm. 'In two days' time, a few of these lads will be cut. But that pressure helps you in professional cricket: make sure you're not one of the guys who misses out.' Swann is in Lord's Pavilion on what feels like the first rainy day in months. He is not long back from India, where he was on commentary duty, and is relishing his first role as head coach, with the reformed Marylebone Cricket Club Young Cricketers. Swann is overseeing a sort of cricketing talent show. On Tuesday, he was joined by 22 young cricketers who have either been released by a first-class county, or are yet to be discovered by them. On Thursday, after two days' training at Wormsley, the beautiful Getty ground in Buckinghamshire, eight players will be cut from the squad. The remaining 14 will spend the next three weeks under Swann, playing red and white-ball cricket against a mixture of outfits: county second teams, Jersey, and the South Asian Cricket Academy, the brilliant intervention scheme that has already helped more than a dozen talented players find professional contracts. When the fixtures conclude, one player will have a county contract for the duration of the MetroBank One-Day Cup in August funded by MCC. Another two will be selected for MCC's tour of Zimbabwe this winter. Gray-Nicolls is also offering one player a bat sponsorship. All the players are paid a day rate through the month, too. 'They're a bit nervous this morning,' Swann says, smiling. 'But I understand that. The stakes are high and it can be overawing here.' Swann is from the modern school of coaching, focusing on providing inspiration and tactical insight, rather than smothering players in technique. He has worked with Trent Rockets and the England Lions and Under-19s. The South Asian Cricket Academy has already proved that talent is slipping through county pathways, and he is determined to help find it. 'There's a lot of untapped talent out there,' he says. 'I was a late developer. Look at Gus Atkinson, who suddenly put on pace, or Joe Root, who could barely lift his bat at 18. I hope to bring it out of these boys. I couldn't believe that Jack Carney, who I knew from England Under-19s, was here, and didn't have a pro contract. He's a brilliant player and if he's the benchmark, then I'm very excited. 'Not everyone fits into the traditional system. At the end of the day a county pathway is a coach's judgment. If they don't see someone in somebody, they slip the net. This is a brilliant opportunity, a shop window.' It is a treat of a day for the players. They are given an induction, which includes a talk from MCC chairman Mark Nicholas in the Long Room, then from Rob Key, England's managing director, and the legendary New Zealander Kane Williamson, whose stint with Middlesex starts this week, in the home dressing room. After lunch they net with Swann, have a gym session (not with Swann), and are given virtual reality concussion testing and education. The players, who are mostly in their early twenties, are keen to impress; some have first-class experience, but most do not. Key recommended Swann to Rob Lynch, MCC's director of cricket, who was determined to revive a scheme that fizzled out for financial reasons during the pandemic, despite almost 100 years of history; Denis Compton, Lord Botham and Phil Tufnell are all former MCC YCs, as are Ross Taylor, Daren Sammy and Travis Head. There is an 'irony' for Lynch that worthy work he did in his previous role at the Professional Cricketers' Association has contributed to the need for this scheme. He battled for a minimum salary in domestic cricket (currently £28,000 a year), but that meant difficult decisions for cash-strapped counties over who to retain. 'It means some players aren't being afforded the opportunities they might have been a few years ago,' he says. Lynch also knew first-hand the value of such a scheme. In 2000, he came to England as a wide-eyed 17-year-old Kiwi (he was Brendon McCullum's rival as a keeper-bat for New Zealand Under-19s) to be a YC alongside the likes of Rikki Clarke and Alex Gidman, later stalwarts of the county game. 'If I could relive seven months of my life, it would be those seven months,' he says. 'It was hugely educational, just a great opportunity to learn about cricket, life and myself while a long way from home.' Lynch and his colleagues would train at Lord's, and work with the ground staff, while juggling playing commitments in a mix of matches, from county second teams to the Army or Navy. He remembers finding a trip to the Oval to face Alex Tudor 'quite scary'. The YCs lived at the Hyelm hostel in Hampstead. Each Friday, Lynch would be paid £204.50 for the week in cash. First stop was the hostel, where he would pay £75 for a week's accommodation, including breakfast and dinner. 'Most of the remaining £130 would be gone by Saturday morning,' he says, laughing. A quarter of a century on, we live in a different world. The main barrier to such a scheme would be the sheer cost of accommodation anywhere near Lord's, but MCC appears determined to offer an avenue into the game. 'I'm convinced this pilot can work,' Lynch says. 'The vision for next year would be to extend the concept across the season, effectively creating a rambling side playing around the country, then returning to club cricket at the weekend. That could run from April to July, so counties could then pick up players for the back end of the season, when squads become stretched. 'MCC is a cricket club. We need to invest in cricket initiatives. Who knows where we can take this? Could it also be linked to the new world we are entering by taking on a Hundred team? We are the only one of the eight without a development pathway through the host county. Could this become the breeding ground for 18-year-olds to get in the team? For now, we just want to help some talented lads work their way into the professional game.'
BBC News
10-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Derbyshire fast bowler Moore out for at least eight weeks
Derbyshire fast bowler Harry Moore has been ruled out for at least eight weeks with a back 17-year-old suffered the injury in a pre-season friendly math against the South Asian Cricket Academy in late a product of the club's academy who became Derbyshire's youngest debutant when he played against Worcestershire in the One-Day Cup in 2023, missed the season-opening victory against England Under-19 international is now set to miss a further six County Championship fixtures before the T20 Blast starts in late only made his first-class debut for Derbyshire in the later stages of last season, picking up six wickets at an average of just under 24 in the three County Championship games he featured reputation as a fast-rising prospect was solidified by an England Lions call-up and first appearance for the second-string national team in South Africa in December.
