Worcestershire CCC Under-18s will switch to competitive action this weekend after a successful start to the campaign.
The Under-18s, including members of the Worcestershire Academy, have won five of their seven matches and now will take on Derbyshire in a 50 over contest at Kidderminster on Sunday (May 9) in the ECB regionalised competition.
They will also be in action against Warwickshire and Staffordshire in ECB T20 and three-day tournaments during the summer.
Academy Coach Elliot Wilson has been pleased with the start to 2021 but says the players relish playing competitive cricket.
He said: “We have started well, played some quite impressive cricket. Initially, we played against people of their own age and then we had a couple of weekends of playing against ‘men’s teams in Shrewsbury CC and Herefordshire, which were a real stretch.
“The lads stepped up well, and I think they are in a good place coming into our first ECB game on Sunday against Derbyshire.
“With competitive cricket, we would say from a talent development perspective, and purely from what our responsibilities are, that it doesn’t make that much difference.
“But the lads love playing competitive cricket. Everyone plays the game because they like winning. No one plays the game and comes off the pitch thinking, ‘I enjoyed that because I got better today.’
“They enjoy it because they like winning, so playing some ECB competitive games over the next six weeks will be quite exciting, and they will want to win more games than they lose.”
Regarding the benefits of the ECB competitions, Wilson said: “It’s about making sure Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire get the same number of days cricket so we will play a three-day game against each other and two days of white-ball cricket against each other.
“We will get a decent amount of organised cricket, but, with the COVID restrictions at the moment, we weren’t going to be able to create a playoff stage after the white ball competition and three ball competition, so it has been regionalised for this summer.”
Joe Stanley will captain the side with Tom Cosh keeping wicket, and play will get underway at 11am at Chester Road.
WORCESTERSHIRE CCC Under-18s
I Mohammed
O Walker
J Home
H Cooke
O Cox
J Stanley*
C Bennett
J Dickenson
T Cosh +
O Davidson
C Jones
R Jones
