Warwickshire is throwing open the Edgbaston Cricket Centre for children hoping to join the Club’s youth pathway and potentially become Bears stars of the future.
Applications to join Warwickshire’s youth pathway – where first team players including Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali and Sam Hain started their careers – are open until mid-September for under-13 to under-18 boys and girls starting from under-11.
Children must supply video footage of them batting, bowling and/or wicket keeping for assessment before successful candidates are invited in for a series of coaching sessions from October to December.
On Monday (21 August) the Club is making the Edgbaston Cricket Centre available between 1pm-5pm for children to use the nets to record their mobile phone footage.
Warwickshire’s High Performance Manager Paul Greetham, said: “This isn’t a formal trial but a chance for any children interested in joining our youth programme to capture video footage of themselves in our nets.
“We appreciate that some children may struggle to access facilities to capture the video we need as part of the application process which is why we’re offering this opportunity.
“Last year was the first time we introduced this system in order to make our pathway accessible to every child across the region. It resulted in 60 children being selected for our coaching sessions and 10 making it onto the pathway which is brilliant.”
The new pathway process was developed in association with Birmingham City University (BCU) which co-funded research looking at how bias and a lack of objectivity can impact selection decisions.
Previously only local clubs, schools and cricket organisations could nominate players for trial so the move throws the Club’s selection processes open to all.
Children should be accompanied by an adult at the Indoor Centre and batters must bring along someone who can bowl seam and spin to them.
Video should be supplied on WhatsApp on 07851 012329 (boys) and 07754 321590 (girls).
To register to attend the Edgbaston Cricket Centre please complete this online form.
Additional tickets released for West Indies Test
A small number of tickets have been released for the first three days of our Men’s Test against West Indies this summer (26-30 July).
Over 80,000 tickets have been sold across the five days and remaining tickets are expected to go quickly.
Hospitality and Premium Tickets are still available for all days.
