ICC EUROPE MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lord’s Cricket Ground, London, 13 April 2007
Talented teenagers set to benefit from ICC Europe’s Centre of Excellence Next week, 25 of Europe’s most promising young cricketers will travel to La Manga Club, Spain to take part in the annual ICC European Development Program (EDP) Centre of Excellence. It is the second successive year that the five-day camp has been held at the world-class leisure resort located in Murcia on south-eastern Spain’s Costa Cálida. The club’s cricket centre includes two pitches with artificial wickets and a four-bay artificial net facility.
The 25 young cricketers are aged between 13 and 17 and come from 13 European countries, including Europe’s top three Associates, Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands, whose senior sides have recently been showing off their talents at the ICC Cricket World Cup in the West Indies. The Centre of Excellence has once again been organised by ICC Europe Development Officer Philip Hudson, who states that the philosophy behind it is “to identify and select the most talented young cricketers in Europe at this age group, and develop them through excellent coaching and support services in order for them to achieve their potential”. The camp is certainly not short on the excellent coaching and support that Hudson speaks of here.
An EDP coaching team consisting of five coaches will lead sessions on batting, bowling and fielding, with focus also being placed on tactics and leadership. The coaching team includes Hudson and camp director Richard O’Sullivan, who has been involved with the Centre of Excellence since it began in 1999. Both have extensive coaching experience at club, county and national level. Working alongside Hudson and O’Sullivan are three Europe-based coaches – Ryan Eagleson of the Northern Ireland Cricket Association as well as Pete Steindl and Craig Wright of Cricket Scotland. Wright has just returned home from the West Indies where he was captaining his country at the ICC Cricket World Cup.
In addition, 12 leaders from each of the participating country boards will accompany the players on the camp and offer further support. At the same time they will take part in a separate program tailored to their needs as coaches within their own countries. The sessions for these participants include a series of seminars and presentations and the opportunity to work alongside and learn from the ICC Europe coaching team.
The ICC DPE Centre of Excellence has been running for nine years and the results are starting to show with several of the graduates now playing for their national sides, including Daan van Bunge and Alexei Kervezee of the Netherlands, young players who have both broken through to the senior team.
Participants: Shashank Kothari – Belgium Parikh Armaan – Belgium Hamid Shah – Denmark Siddique Raja – Denmark Max Seil – Germany Manishi Mathur – Germany Scott Chipolina – Gibraltar Josh Hatcher – Gibraltar Hugh MacDonnell – Ireland Hugo Mays – Ireland Luis Digiglio – Italy Alessandro Merlo – Italy Jaap Dickmann – Netherlands Leon Turmaine – Netherlands Aman Bailwal – Scotland Freddie Coleman – Scotland Joshua Vainio – Finland Adam Hindle – Guernsey William Thompson – Guernsey Max Stokoe – Isle of Man Luke Lacy – Isle of Man Matthew Winter – Spain Joel Brook – Spain Richard Marsden – Switzerland John Gallon – Switzerland
Leaders: Martin Gregson – Belgium Christian Rønn Hansen – Denmark Benjamin Das – Germany Andrew Chipolina – Gibraltar Brian Allen – Ireland Manlio De Amicis – Italy Ed de Moura Correia – Netherlands Maija Scamans – Finland Ben Ferbrache – Guernsey Gareth Rowlands – Isle of Man Jeff Matthews – Spain Jiteshwar Singh – Switzerland