By Charles Randall
9 October 2014
Ryan Davies, the Sandwich Town CC wicket keeper-batsman, has edged closer to international recognition by winning a place with this winter's England Development Programme squad.
This good news followed his first Kent contract at the age of 17 and would naturally fuel aspirations to join the line of Kent wicket keepers to have played Test cricket from Geraint Jones back through Paul Downton, Alan Knott, Godfrey Evans and Les Ames. And not to mention Tammy Beaumont, his Sandwich colleague, who has reached the England women's team.
The group's schedule includes training sessions at Loughborough, a trip to the subcontinent in December and a tour to Australia in March and April 2015.
Davies's colleagues include off-spinner Brad Taylor, who sprang from Holybourne CC in Hampshire County League Division Four North to become Hampshire's youngest debutant in 2013 at the age of 16. Mason Crane, the Worthing CC and Hampshire Academy leg-spinner, has been given deserved encouragement, and the Weybridge CC all-rounder Sam Curran, son of the late Zimbabwe all-rounder Kevin Curran, continues his upward career on Surrey's books. Max Holden, the Cambridge Granta CC left-hander, has two seasons in the East Anglian Premier League under his belt, finishing the 2014 season with a century at Saffron Walden. Batsman Callum Taylor, the second of two brothers at Swardeston CC, helped his side to the East Anglia title as run-away winners.
The 18-man EDP squad combines players from across the Under-17 and Under-19 age groups as the first intake to be overseen by Andy Hurry, ECB’s new head of the England Development Programme.
Brad Taylor and the Lancashire batsman Haseeb Hameed are two of four players who featured in England Under-19s Royal London one-day series whitewash over South Africa Under-19s this summer. Most of the 18 players in Hurry's group played in the EDP Under-17 team against Pakistan Under-17 in August this year.
The Development chairman of selectors David Graveney said: “The composition of the 2014-2015 EDP squad represents a change in direction for the England Development Programme with the Under-19 and Under-17 age groups fully combined for the first time. This move has created one smaller squad of players for Andy Hurry and the rest of the coaching staff at the NCPC to work with more closely, and simultaneously gives the county academies greater ownership in developing their young players moving forwards.”
Graveney added: “We believe that we have selected an outstanding 18-man EDP squad, and I am especially excited by the wealth of young talent currently coming through the development pathway. This group of players will now get the opportunity to take part in a training camp on the subcontinent before Christmas, followed by a challenging tour to Australia in March-April next year, providing two fantastic learning experiences of playing in contrasting conditions and environments.”
England Development Programme squad
Mason Crane (Hampshire)
Sam Curran (Surrey)
Ryan Davies (Kent)
Will Davis (Derbyshire)
Aneurin Donald (Glamorgan)
Matt Fisher (Yorkshire)
Ben Green (Somerset)
Haseeb Hameed (Lancashire)
Max Holden (Middlesex)
Mosun Hussain (Yorkshire)
Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire)
Tom Moores (Nottinghamshire)
Matt Parkinson (Lancashire)
Brad Taylor (Hampshire)
Callum Taylor (Essex)
Aaron Thomason (Warwickshire)
Jared Warner (Yorkshire)
Joe Weatherley (Hampshire)