News

Brian Allen reports on a busy winter for the youth squads and a good start to the 2012 Inter-Provincial season
The winter of 2011-12 saw a comprehensive indoor programme for the North-West regional development squads, where players of great talent continue to come through.
The Regional Development Squads were comprised of players that were nominated through their clubs to go forward and receive further coaching and gain the opportunity to claim their place in a North West team. Each age group involved 30 participants, giving the North West’s best young players at each age level a chance to train with each other. With the Under 17 tournament coming first in the series of Interprovincial events, they were the first squad to kick-start their indoor sessions in mid-January with the younger age groups sessions following reverse chronological order (U15, U13, and U11).

The 2012 pre-season saw the introduction of video analysis to the Regional Development Squad programme for the Under 17 and 15 age groups, and visual aids to the Under 13s and 11s, devised to help with the development of the younger player. The video analysis (pictured with Calum McGregor above) used on the Under 17 and Under 15 groups provided an opportunity for each participant to see through their own eyes the motions that their body goes through to complete a specific skill – a chance not many cricketers at club level would ever get. Although the image captured on camera of each participant was useful for the coach’s eye it also provided a unique chance for each player to critique their performance, and then begin to formulate a training plan to aid in their own personal development. At the end of each of the winter training programmes the players discussed with their coaches the areas of strength they would reinforce and identified any areas of performance that they could improve and work on in the run-up to the pre-tournament sessions later in the year.

The Under 13 and Under 11 Regional Development Squads directed a great amount of focus on the fundamentals of the game. In these sessions visual aids were added to the programme to ensure that each player had a point of reference to see the ‘textbook’ approach to completing each aspect of the game. This type of resource allowed the Regional Development Squad coaches a chance to assess the knowledge of the participants, and the participants a greater understanding of why the fundamental basics of cricket are just as important as the more flamboyant aspects that many junior players may seek to emulate. The introduction of visual aids was not to bring about carbon copied cricketers but rather to increase the young players’ understanding of the importance of adopting a solid and safe technique that provides a sound foundation, aiming to build high quality future cricketers.

The winter stages of the Regional Development Squad training programme have now been completed, with the successful participants regrouping for a further series of sessions in the weeks running up to each Interprovincial tournament.

The dates of each tournament are:

Under 17 – Date: 6th May v NCU – Won & 13th May v Leinster – Match Abandoned ; Location: Coleraine CC & Bready CC

Under 15 – Date: 4th to 6th July; Location: Northern Cricket Union

Under 13– Date: 2nd to 4th July; Location: Munster Cricket Union – Cork

The Under 17’s started with a great win in a very well contested game over the NCU in Coleraine CC on Sunday May the 6th. It was a true all around team performance with everybody contributing well especially with the ball where a good group bowling performance pulled back the game after a good start from the NCU batsmen. Our second match was the following week at a cold and wind-swept Bready CC against Leinster, and it was left interestingly poised at the half-way stage with the North West posting 165 mainly thanks to skipper Rishi Chopra’s 60 Unfortunately due to some truly horrendous weather conditions the game had to be abandoned with Leinster only 2 overs into their reply.

The Irish Under 17’s will play both the Netherlands and Guernsey this summer and the selectors are now meeting to select those to represent Ireland at those matches.

Brian Allen