In line with Inspiring Generations, Northamptonshire County Cricket Club have developed a ‘National County Academy & Emerging Players Programme Partnership’ to extend the first-class reach of youth performance development into our neighbouring National Counties on a formal level.
The move comes on the back of the successful merger of the County Club and recreational board at Northamptonshire last year. This merger acted as a pilot for the club to engage on a more pro-active level with the youth performance age groups representing Northamptonshire.
Both Buckinghamshire and Cricket East (Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire) have joined the program to date and the club hope to extend this further.
These partnerships allow the club to work closer with the National County youth performance staff and players to deliver not only CPD events using first-class staff and facilities, but also provide more playing opportunities and high-performance specialist coaching to these counties’ youth players within their respective programmes.
The partnerships are not solely pathway focused, they have community, marketing, promotional, officials and participation offers to deliver a more rounded cricket infrastructure plan from grassroots to first-class cricket.
“This is an exciting opportunity to build on the existing ties with the neighbouring National Counties to deliver a clear pathway to first-class cricket and more access to both specialist and professional staff for developing coaches and pathway players.” said
Northamptonshire Academy Director Kevin Innes.
“The idea of the partnerships is to provide mutual benefit to both Northamptonshire and the National Counties by developing the integration of shared ideas to pull as one and bypass traditional county borders.”
The delivery of the partnerships begins in October of this year.