Farbrace: “Having Stone, Woakes and Sibley in the England set up acts as a massive incentive”

Paul Farbrace believes the presence of three Warwickshire players in the senior England squad acts as a "massive incentive" for others coming through at the Club to strive to emulate them.

Three Bears – Chris Woakes, Dom Sibley and Olly Stone – have been with England on tour this winter and are set to play a major role in a busy 2021 for the national team, culminating in the Ashes in Australia.

All three are, as well as fine cricketers, excellent role-models as both sportsmen and people. And director of cricket Farbrace believes that can only help the likes of Sam Hain, Henry Brookes, Rob Yates and Dan Mousley as they target a rise into Test cricket in the coming years.

“Having Stone, Woakes and Sibley in the England set up acts as a massive incentive for all our players,” Farbrace said.

“When our lads come back from England duty and talk about touring India and Sri Lanka and playing against West Indies and Pakistan in this country last year, the other lads are listening to that and thinking, ‘I want to be part of that.’

Paul Farbrace

“Chris Woakes is just a fantastic person to watch and learn from as a man and a cricketer. Then the guys see how hard Dom Sibley has worked to get in that England team and how stubborn and single-minded he has been and they will say, ‘if I work as hard as that, maybe I can get there as well.’

“People look at Stoney and see his work ethic and how hard he has worked after a tough time with injuries to get in such great physical shape to play for England. That can only inspire people and have a knock on effect for all our players who are saying, that’s where I want to be.’

“We have some very talented players at the club who are on the cusp of taking their games on to the next level. It can only help them hugely to be able to pick the brains of our current England guys and also those of people like Tim Bresnan and Danny Briggs, who have been there too.”