APPROACH AND PHILOSOPHY PLAYS KEY PART IN ACADEMY’S PROUD RED BALL RECORD

Coach Elliot Wilson says Worcestershire Academy’s proud record in three-day cricket is a result of the “attitude and philosophy” required of the club’s youngsters in their approach to the game.

Worcestershire remained unbeaten in the ECB Under-18 County Championship last summer and they have not tasted defeat in the red ball tournament for more than five years since losing to Hampshire in 2019.

Wilson says one of his most satisfying days during 10 years in his current role came when the Academy batted and battled through 103 overs on the final day against Cricket Wales at Panteg to protect that proud record.

It was a reward and justification for the spells that batters spend in the nets throughout the winter months learning to occupy the crease for lengthy periods and the fundamental basics of the game.

What was even more satisfying is that staying unbeaten this summer was achieved with players primarily in the 15 to 17 age group and younger than the majority of their opponents.

Wilson, reflecting on the 2024 season, said: “Batting out for the day in Wales is probably one of the most impressive things I’ve seen a group of young cricketers do in 10 years of doing this job. It made my summer personally.

“I wouldn’t ever question the fight or the attitude and we agreed the night before that the recipe was relatively simple, defend straight, leave exceptionally well, steal singles and put the bad ball away.

“That is easy for me to say but really challenging for 16, 17, 18 year-olds to do for a long, long period of time. For them to go and do that, showed a hell of a lot of skill.

“Coming into this year knowing which group of players were likely to play in a lot of our Academy cricket, a decent chunk of 15 and 16-year-olds, we were going to be significantly younger than a lot of our opponents.

“We’ve stood up far better than I thought we would do. Gloucestershire won our group in three-day cricket but we beat them comfortably. Just really exciting that the lads have stepped up.”

Regarding the impressive three-day record, Wilson said: “It’s a lot to do with the attitude and philosophy of what we believe is important with our cricketers, how we talk to them and how we coach them in terms of the longer format of the game.

“If, for example, Alfie Higgins and Seth Essenhigh have really good red ball fundamentals that will set them up to learn how to play white ball cricket.

“Some of the principles and the ethos of how we do stuff in the Academy is the batters coming in at 6pm on a Monday night, putting the pads on and batting for three hours so they are used to doing things for long periods of time.

“Then when we get to Panteg, and we’ve got 103 overs to bat, they’ve got a chance because they know what it is like to do simple things for long periods of time because that’s what has been asked of them.”

Wilson added: “Some of the cricketers within that (group) have shown some qualities that have made the club comfortable to pick them in second team cricket at an early age.

“For Toby Cox to go and play not only Academy cricket, but also for Herefordshire, then second team cricket and score his maiden second team fifty and pick up useful wickets is exciting.

“The same for Fin Goodman who has got exposed to it early on in his experience. These are great opportunities for the lads.

“Alfie Higgins is a 15 year-old playing Under-18 cricket this year, and he played four of the five three-day games.”

ECB UNDER-18 COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP AVERAGES

Qualification: 200 runs for batting and 6 wickets for bowling.