With the season now underway, I thought it would be a good idea to remind everyone about how team selection works and send you the club’s policy for this. (see link below). We aim to adhere to this as much as possible, but is of course not an exact science and there will always be exceptions.

Selection Policy

This season has seen unprecedented numbers of new members join the club, which is fantastic news and testament to the great work undertaken over the last couple of years in progressing the club forward both on, and off the field.

This does of course bring its own challenges.

For our selection committee, which consists of all our senior team captains (Jack Haycock, Jake Moore, PJ Malem, Mike Farmer & Gary Baxter) and our senior coach (Graeme Clark), this is a very difficult job as they get to grips with everyone's own unique abilities and aspirations. All the time balancing this against individual team needs and ensuring we get as many members playing cricket as possible.

There is no perfect solution to this with so many members wanting to play cricket, but I would firstly like to congratulate them on they are dealing with this as I know they spend numerous hours discussing selection, and then sorting out the weekends teams.

Your help is also essential to them, so please make sure they know your availability at the earliest opportunity as they meet every Monday evening. Attendance at training really can help too in both promoting yourself and show to the selection committee your ability. We understand this is not possible for everyone due to work and family commitments, but it really can help promote yourself forward, particularly as we they get to know you.

We know that one of the main challenges for us as a club is the difference in the standard of cricket played by our 1st XI and our other teams. A further challenge is the similarity of standard between our 2nd, 3rd & 4th teams.

It will take time to resolve this as it requires a number of promotions by our 2nd and 3rd teams in particular. This will then bring a greater spread of the standard of cricket played, as well as aiding player development and progression.  

You again can help here by making yourself available for whatever team you are selected for. We know that there are people playing in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th teams who are capable of playing at a much higher level, but this as I say will take time to address through a series of promotions.  

My final point is around the need to balance the providing of cricket for all. Our aim is to provide as much opportunity to play cricket as possible for all our members. This includes all our senior members as well as aiding development of those juniors who are demonstrating they are ready to play open age cricket  

This is a very difficult one to balance at the moment as we need to ensure, particularly our 4th and Sunday teams, have an appropriate balance of experience and development opportunities so as to be competitive, but also not damage potential development of those playing their first or second season of open age cricket.

I hope this information is of use, but as always we are happy to receive any comments or suggestions you may have. 

Regards

Martin Croucher

Club Chairman