The Journey Continues for Junior Club Cricketers

A junior player from ATF St Ouen Springfield in action against Chirpy’s Academy.

The BDO My Club My Journey programme resumes in 2022 with more demand than ever before. Since its inception in 2020, with the aim to ensure young players have a clear path into the highest levels of club cricket in Jersey, the number of teams involved has grown from 12 to 18.

Over 280 boys and girls form the junior teams from the local Premier League clubs as well as Chirpy’s CC and Jersey Lionesses to make up the leagues with weekly mid-week training sessions and fixtures on Sunday mornings from May-August.

The sessions and fixtures are led by qualified junior co-ordinators alongside club coaches and supported by Jersey Cricket development officers to assist with session planning and coach development.

The 2022 season will see a re-vamp of the competition structure with teams spread across 3 divisions based on age and hardball cricket experience. T1 will see competitive T20 cricket played between the strongest players. T2 will be modified cricket to suit the development of players and T3 will be aimed at coaching the youngest players through adapted multi-inning T10 cricket.

Jersey Cricket’s Performance and Development Manager Lee Meloy said ‘the BDO My Club My Journey programme is the vehicle to ensuring club cricket thrives in Jersey for many years to come. We are starting to see a rise in playing numbers at the lower levels of senior club cricket and the hope is for this to filter right to the top’.

‘Having established a large demand and consistent playing numbers our focus has switched to ensure the quality of the cricket our young players are exposed to is applicable to their age, experience and skill level. We are thrilled to continue working with BDO to increase the opportunities and experiences for young cricketers in Jersey’.

Simon Le Brocq, Director of Transformation and Change at BDO added ‘we are delighted to be sponsoring the ‘BDO My Club My Journey’ programme again this year to help young Islanders realise their cricketing potential. We believe in supporting young people to succeed. Last year we saw more boys and girls than ever before take part and we are looking forward to seeing these young players continue to develop valuable life skills through team sport participation, whilst at the same time supporting the continued growth of cricket in Jersey’.