Worcestershire CCC have had four players selected from their Academy-Pathway programme for the prestigious 2024 Bunbury Cricket Festival which will be staged in August at the National Performance Centre at Loughborough.
Alfie Higgins, Jeet Varaich, Lucian Brockman and Joe Porter will continue Worcestershire’s proud record of having a strong representation each year at the festival which became part of the ECB pathway in 2018.
They will all play for the Midlands in the four-team tournament which showcases the skills of 56 of the most talented England Under-15 players in the country.
Current Worcestershire professionals, Henry Cullen (2018) and Rehaan Edavalath (2019) have been selected for the Bunburys in the past.
Worcestershire 2023-2024 Academy players Jack Home, Ben Clarke and Ben Clements (2021) plus Toby Cox, Seth Essenhigh and Fin Goodman (2023) have also been chosen.
More than 300 Bunburys have gone onto play first class cricket and over 60 have eventually represented England.
Higgins is part of the Academy for the second year running and is a right handed top order batter-right arm medium pacer who plays for Barnt Green. Three years ago he scored 201 not out for Worcestershire v Herefordshire in an Under-12s match.
Varaich is a left arm seamer who plays club cricket for Knowle and Dorridge. He has been around the Worcestershire programme for the past couple of years and Academy Coach Elliot Wilso says he has made impressive strides in the past 12 months.
Brockman, like Varaich, is part of the Worcestershire pathway. He is a right arm medium fast bowler and his club cricket is for Pedmore.
Porter is on the Academy for the first time and is a wicket-keeper and top order batter who also plays for Pedmore.
Worcestershire Academy Coach, Elliot Wilson, said: “They are a good group and all four of them have got some exciting weeks ahead of them.
“There are benefits to their self confidence in terms of their self work, in terms of being confirmed that they are potentially a good cricketer.
“There is the experience of playing the best players in the country at your age and seeing how you stack up against them.
“We’ve had a quiet couple of years (with the Bunburys) but historically we’ve done really well.
“It’s nice to see what we do in terms of player development reaps its benefits in certain ways and this might be one of them in terms of regional recognition.
“It is an outstanding week, a big thing for players and families of that age.
“Sadly, we know a lot more players go to Bunbury and don’t make it. But the list of Bunbury players who have gone onto play first class cricket and for England is a long list.”
A warm up match for the Bunburys between the Midlands squad and the North will take place on July 17 at Weetwood, Leeds.
The tournament will be staged at Loughborough from August 4 to 9.
