We caught up with Glamorgan’s Head of Talent Development, Richard Almond about the role of the Academy and the Player Pathway, the up and coming stars of Welsh Cricket, and being the only County to provide a free Pathway programme.
Was it a successful season for the Player Pathway and the Academy?
Yes, overall I would say it was a successful season. All our teams exceeded expectations on the pitch, and we had a number of outstanding individual performances to go along with some exceptional team performances. Some of the highlights included our U13 team beating Yorkshire and having a nail-biting tie with Warwickshire. Our U14s qualified from the South West group to set up a quarter-final in the ECB Cup with Surrey which we unfortunately lost.
The team of the season was undoubtedly the U16 team who qualified from their South West group also to face Surrey in the quarter-final of their ECB Cup. The boys performed really well to beat Surrey and set up a semi-final with Middlesex. In a close encounter we lost by 18 runs to a very strong Middlesex team who went on to win the final. Reaching the last 4 of the competition was a great achievement for the boys.
It was pleasing to see the teams doing well and getting some good results, but more important to me is how the boys play their cricket. We have made noticeable improvements in all three disciplines over the past two years this is a testament to the hard work the boys and coaches are putting in.
Who are the players coming through that excite you the most?
It is always difficult to pick out individuals as we have a number of high-potential players in the system. Obviously, Henry Hurle has been rewarded for his performances with an England U19 Cap and his first professional contract, and Tom Norton at just 16 years old has put in some good performances with bat and ball in our 2nd XI over the past season. These are just two names you may have seen over the course of the season.
Henry Hurle was named Academy Player of the Season this year, and as you mentioned, has been gicen a professional contract by the Club. How impressive has he been, and how has he faired with the England U19’s squad?
Henry is an exciting talent and has performed well over the past two seasons and getting an England Cap was just reward for his hard work. He was selected as a back-up wicketkeeper but did play 3 of the 7 games in the series with Ireland and Australia. He is a hard-hitting batter and showed this with a brisk 46 off 23 balls against Ireland. By his own admission, the month with England was invaluable, he spent time with the England coaches including Chris Read, Mike Yardy and Andrew Flintoff, and has benefited hugely from the whole experience. He is taking a gap year and is currently playing 1st grade cricket for Mosman in Sydney this winter. We look forward to seeing him do well in the 2nd XI next season, and hopefully pushing for a 1st XI place.
The future of Welsh Cricket is looking bright, but what are we doing to make sure that our youngsters have a greater chance to play for Glamorgan?
We have made a few changes to the way things were done since taking over the Player Pathway from Cricket Wales three years ago. Firstly, we have increased the contact time we have with the players, in most cases it has doubled and secondly, we have employed better coaches to help the boys improve. All our teams have experienced coaches with them in the summer and during the winter we are privileged to have the likes of Colin Ingram, Steve James, Matt Maynard, Steve Watkin and Dean Cosker working with the boys. So, the philosophy is pretty simple the boys are getting more time with better-quality coaches.
At the higher academy level, we are also exposing our players to as many different experiences as possible both locally in different teams during the summer and abroad on our annual academy tour in the winter. This experiential learning will put those boys in a good position to be able to cope with the demands of first-class cricket.
We are confident that the work we are putting in will, in time, produce some high-quality players, but we do ask for patience because it will take time for these changes to bed in. We have started to see some benefits on the field in the summer with improved performances from our age group teams but we have some way still to go to reach the levels we want from our young players.
We are the only County that makes their Player Pathway free to be a part of, how did that come about and why is that important?
It is something that we feel strongly about. We are trying to minimise the barriers that may prevent players from participating in our Player Pathway and in the current climate finance is a potential barrier to participation. We want our Player Pathway to be inclusive and accessible to all of our most talented players. As well as making it free, we have also provided playing shirts and caps to all our players further reducing the burden on parents. We are also trying to minimise travel costs by regionalising some of our programme, holding sessions during the winter in Neath, Cardiff, and North Wales. It is important that we do as much as we can to make cricket a game for all.