U23 DISTRICT COMPETITION SET TO KICK OFF

This Sunday, April 30^th, will see the opening pair of fixtures in Cricket Leinster’s brand new U23 District Competition taking place, with the curtain raiser seeing Dublin University host the Dublin City team, whilst in The Maws, the South Dublin & Midlands side will play host to their Fingal counterparts.

This competition is yet another step along the pathway which will allow players to showcase their abilities with a very busy summer of Leinster Lightning, and Lightning Bolts cricket ahead. Something which Lightning Coach and Pathway Manager Nigel Jones is very excited about;

“Firstly there’s excitement, but look there’s no secret that when cricketers get into their late teens, they often make life decisions and there’s other things happening for them, so to keep cricket more relevant for them and give them something to keep striving for in this sort of environment from an U23s perspective it gives us a bit of a range from that 18/19 year old through to the 22/23 year old to match up against each other and get more cricket into them.

Looking up to the Future Series side (Lightning Bolts) where the side is made up of guys who from almost straight out of that youth environment and go right up to the age of maybe 25 and sometimes slightly older, this adds another layer which helps give guys opportunities to put their hands up for that. For me it’s important to see what’s coming through, transitioning out of the youth stuff into adult cricket.”

Jones is quick to acknowledge the wider role of club cricket within the pathway system but hopes this competition can help to complement areas for certain players;

“League cricket and club cricket is really important in that context too and I think that if we’re able to create a couple of layers in that area where maybe guys get opportunities in roles that suit their play better it’s helpful as club cricket can be a bit restrictive there sometimes depending on the needs or goals of the club.

So I think for the youngsters coming through an environment like this will give them some opportunities and play roles that will help them progress and obviously create some healthy competition for spots in the Bolts side and then of course pushing on into the Leinster Lightning team.

Yeah so I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks, we should see some excellent cricket and good luck to all the players involved in the squads”

Kicking off in College Park, the Gavin Hoey-captained hosts will boast a side which is sure to bring no shortage of quality to the competition. Their side will include no fewer than 3 players who represented the Lightning side in the 2022 season in Hoey, Theo Dempsey and Mikey O’Reilly as well as a host of players who regularly feature in their club’s 1^st XIs. The most notable of those being David Vincent, who broke right through in Clontarf last season with two centuries in the second half of the season, he could be expected to be a key player at the top of the order for this side. Dublin University are notably without Matthew Humphreys this weekend, with the Lisburn man currently on international duty.

Dublin University team to play Dublin City; David Vincent (Clontarf) David Cosgrave (Pembroke) Will Todd (Pembroke) Rory Betley (DUCC) Sanil Gupta (Pembroke) Stephen Black (Phoenix)Gavin Hoey (Pembroke) Theo Dempsey (Phoenix) Mikey O’Reilly (YMCA) JJ Walsh (Merrion) Ben McCabe (Clontarf)

The opening day opposition for the students will be the Dublin City side, who compete under the watchful eye of Merrion head coach Nicky Kenny, their side will again feature a wealth of players who have already had a taste of some action either at IP or Future Series level, and are set to provide a very tough task for Dublin University to open the competition against. They are skippered by Railway Union’s captain Liam McCarthy, and the inclusion of Clontarf overseas man Ruan Cronje is a major boost all-round to the team.

Dublin City squad to play Dublin University; Aaron McGeehan (Clontarf) Ashil Prakash (Railway Union) Ruan Cronje (Clontarf) Macdara Cosgrave (Pembroke) Callum O’Byrne (Phoenix) Liam McCarthy (Railway Union) Brandon Kruger (Railway Union) Noah Smith (Pembroke) Oisin Bhoja (Merrion) Patrick Morris (Pembroke) Cillian McDonnell (Clontarf) Conall Woods (Clontarf)

Dublin City extended squad for U23 District Series; John McNally (Clontarf) Esmat Ibrahimi (Railway Union) Luke Thomson (Clontarf) Philippe Le Roux (Railway Union)

This fixture is set to send several club mates into battle against each other, Clontarf provide 6 of the 23 players whilst there are 7 from Pembroke and a further two from Merrion who provide an off-spinner in each side. Dublin University do however just about edge the experience battle between the two sides, and purely looking on paper it could well be the battle between the two leg-spinning all-rounders which proves to be key in this game as Leinster Lightning’s Gavin Hoey is sure to lock horns with ‘Tarf overseas Ruan Cronje at some stage in the game.

KEY BATTLE: Gavin Hoey vs Ruan Cronje

Over in Kilcock, Dom Joyce is coach of the South Dublin & Midlands side, on week one they play host to Fingal in a game which looks to be full of top quality operators.

The SDM side does however also send out a strong line-up, boasting players from Carlow, Leinster North Kildare, Terenure & YMCA in their 12 man squad, including dual interpro Séamus Lynch who really caught the eye in the Ireland Academy Euro T10 campaign last autumn, former Ireland U19 international Jamie Forbes, and Mark Tonge who returns fresh from a season of cricket in Melbourne.

South Dublin & Midlands squad to play Fingal; Aviral Shukla (Leinster) Séamus Lynch (Terenure) Jamie Forbes (YMCA) Tom Johnson (YMCA) Srihan Karpe (YMCA) Darsh Shetty (Terenure) Mark Tonge (Leinster) Robi Alam (Carlow) Tristen de Beer (Leinster) Joe O’Sullivan (Leinster) Ryan Smith (Terenure) Husnain Maroof (North Kildare)

Joyce is looking forward to being involved in the inaugural competition;

“I’m really excited for this competition. I think it’s a great addition to the pathway system in Leinster cricket and gives players another chance to showcase their ability.

I think Sundays match against what will probably be a very strong Fingal side will be a big test but hopefully our players can rise to the occasion and put in a strong performance.”

The Fingal side are coached by the legendary Ireland international and current Balbriggan coach Andre Botha, having masterminded back-to-back league wins for his newly adopted club in 2021 and 2022, he will no doubt be looking to get the absolute best out of his side, which also has an exciting look to it, featuring two players who took part in the IP50 series in 2022 in Nathan McGuire (Warriors) and Muzamil Sherzad (Lightning) as well as a number of others who were involved in the Lightning Bolts set-up.

Fingal Squad to play South Dublin & Midlands; Hunter Kindley (Malahide) Nathan McGuire (Rush) Muzamil Sherzad (The Hills) Yaseen Sherzad (The Hills) Dylan Lues (Balbriggan) Matthew Pollard (Balbriggan) Luke Whelan (North County) John Devane (North County) Chris De Freitas (Balbriggan) Cameron Rowe (Balbriggan) Diarmaid Burke (Malahide) Forqan Hassandaza (North County)

Fingal extended squad for U23 District Series; David O’Halloran (Malahide) Matthew Weldon (The Hills) Eoin Birch (Balbriggan) Athar Farooqi (The Hills) Cian Nulty (The Hills)

Botha himself is very much looking forward to being involved in this innovation;
“I am very excited to be part of this new innovation from Cricket Leinster to create an extra pathway for young cricketers to put their hands up and hopefully put their names in the hat for Jonesy to pick his senior Bolts and Lighting sides from.

Hopefully this tournament will kick off and get bigger in the coming years as I believe there is a lot of young cricketers out there that might not always be seen or fall through the cracks. Hopefully the weather will play ball and looking forward to seeing some good cricket from all the teams. This can only make CL stronger.”

This game pits some seriously talented ball-strikers against some excellent bowlers, and it’s fair to say that the battle that many people will be looking forward to seeing will be the one at the top of the South Dublin & Midlands innings where Terenure’s star man Séamus Lynch will face off against the new man in Skerries Muzamil Sherzad, in a tussle between two men who both represented the Leinster Lightning last season.

KEY BATTLE: Séamus Lynch vs Muzamil Sherzad