Open Competitions and Youth Cricket

One of the key objectives for Cricket Leinster as set out in its Strategy Plan 2020 is to ensure that a steady stream of young players make a successful transition to adult cricket. One of the fruits of the new registration process is that we can begin to track the flow of young cricketers into Open and Women’s Competitions and, through the improvements in the submission of match details, to highlight particular performances. Over the summer it is hoped to publish a number of articles on how young cricketers are doing at different levels of the sport.

While there are no specific targets for the number of young cricketers participating in Open / Women’s Cricket it is hoped that over time it will be possible to build up a picture that will enable clubs, coaches and the relevant LCU committees to identify trends and patterns relating to youth participation in the sport. This is critically important as Cricket Leinster prepares to meet the challenges [and opportunities] facing Irish cricket as it comes to terms with the changes in world cricket recently announced by the ICC.

Although the information at this point refers only to the first few weeks of the season, it is already clear that young players [defined as those eligible to play in youth competitions up to U19] make up a significant part of the teams turning out in Open Competitions. With just short of 1,200 players taking to the field so far this season, 228 [19.2%] are youth players. With many still at school and doing exams, one would expect the proportion to rise through the season. A breakdown by club is set out in the enclosed table.

IN terms of performance, at this point we have only looked at OC Division 1 and here we find that 19 youth players [out of 101 overall] have played at least one game. The strength of the U16/U17 cohort is also evident with the key performances with bat and ball coming from this age group [this of course may partly reflect those U19 being caught up in Leaving Certificate exams]. The two key batting performances come from this group with Colin Currie [Clontarf] and Jack Tector [YMCA] both having scored 50s in the opening round of matches. On the bowling front another U17, Tom Stanton [Merrion] leads the way both in terms of average and economy rate. David Delany [Clontarf] and Jack Tector have the most wickets [4].