Northamptonshire will visit the Cayman Islands on a pre-season development tour in February 2020, the first stage of the Club’s new Global Partnership Strategy. The tour acts as the first part of a 2 year strategic partnership agreement between Northamptonshire and Cayman Cricket, the national governing body for cricket in the Cayman Islands.
The touring party will comprise members of the Club’s Academy as well as more senior members of the professional squad. Alongside the playing group, the touring party also includes coaching education and other specialists who will conduct coaching and development courses for local coaches and participants, as well as undertake charity and community outreach.
Cayman’s national senior men’s team which will be in training in preparation for an upcoming ICC Americas competition, will participate in games with and against the Northamptonshire touring squad. The tour will also provide playing opportunities for some of the more advanced junior players in Cayman’s own Cricket Academy.
Besides conducting their development tour in Cayman, the agreement extends to strategic assistance to Cayman Cricket in a number of areas including, the sharing and development of coaching strategies; assistance in developing a player pathway strategy; player and coach exchanges; and the conducting of official courses and mentoring for Cayman’s players and officials.
Hector Robinson, President of Cayman Cricket, obviously delighted with this development, said:
“Cayman Cricket is very excited about this development. This is a major breakthrough for us, and was the result of persistent efforts by us over several months. We have long hoped to establish Cayman as a destination of choice for international cricket teams to train and play. Besides providing valuable opportunities for the development of our own players and coaches, tours such as these have the potential for opening up completely new avenues for sports tourism and previously untapped tourism markets.”
Head of Sponsorship and Commercial Partnerships Steven Crook said “the Club are delighted to have created this partnership with Cayman Cricket. They match our ambition for developing cricket and it’s an ideal destination for our Academy tour – we are very much looking forward to working with them for mutually beneficial purposes over the coming years.
This is the start of our Global Partnership Strategy, and the beginning of some extremely exciting times for Northamptonshire County Cricket Club. We’ll be pushing this forward in the coming months, extending the Club’s reach abroad, aiming to develop partnerships in a number of different countries.”
The Club’s Chief Executive Ray Payne felt this is a truly exciting time for the club.
“Our ambition is for Northamptonshire to become a globally recognised brand and this is the first of several international strategic partnerships we will be launching to achieve that.”