Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is relaunching its Young Cricketers (YC) programme after a five-year hiatus, offering 22 amateurs a shot at a becoming a professional cricketer this summer.
The programme, various iterations of which date back to the 1920s, ran until 2019 but has not been in place since the pandemic. Its return will be led by former England Test star Graeme Swann, who has been appointed Head Coach in the revamped format.
Under Swann’s watchful eye, 22 players who have been released, or are yet to be discovered, will get the chance to play against high-level opposition and receive first class coaching, with one player then awarded a spot in a county’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup squad in August. The player will also be awarded a sponsorship package with Gray-Nicolls.
The MCC Young Cricketers’ Programme comes with excellent pedigree and has been producing world-class players for almost a century. In its early days it included a young Dennis Compton, while modern alumni include England internationals like Sir Ian Botham, Phil Tufnell, Alex Hales and Dawid Malan.
It has also featured international stars, such as Darren Sammy, Dean Elgar, Glenn Phillips, Ross Taylor and Travis Head, acting as a finishing school for domestic and overseas stars in the making who were not quite ready for the professional game.
Although the programme has not run since 2019, the current county game is littered with graduates – Essex (Jamie Porter), Sussex (Fynn Hudson-Prentice), Yorkshire (Ben Sears and Jordan Thompson), Glamorgan (Billy Root), Worcestershire (Adam Hose and Kashif Ali) all have graduates on their books, while the likes of Bas de Leede, Finn Allen and Ben Curran are starring in international cricket. Former Head Coaches, Mark Alleyne, Ajmal Shahzad and Steve Kirby are all still involved in county coaching set-ups across the country.
The 2025 programme is a month-long window, which will see Swann, joined by ECB scouts, cast their eye over the 22 hopefuls at Lord’s and then at Wormsley for three days of training and trials. From there the squad will be whittled down to 14, who will be given the chance to test themselves against challenging opposition.
These fixtures will include matches against Lancashire, South Asian Cricket Association, Middlesex, Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, and Jersey, before selection of the final recipient of a contract with a county team. In addition, two players will be invited on MCC’s tour of Zimbabwe later this year.
Rob Lynch, MCC Director of Cricket and Operations, said: “We are thrilled to be able to officially relaunch our Young Cricketers programme. This is a vital pathway for young players who, for various reasons, may not have peaked as early as their peers and slipped through the net. With this programme in place, we can provide a greater opportunity for those players to fulfil their potential.
“We have received strong support from the ECB, and coaches around the country, for which we are grateful, and there is a clear desire for this programme to return. As a former YC myself, I know the value of this pathway and I am looking forward to seeing how the players learn from such an experienced figurehead in Graeme Swann.”
This summer’s short month-long programme is a pilot scheme for men’s players, with the potential of the scheme returning on a more permanent basis in future years, including women’s players and supporting the female playing programme. With the three-tier domestic structure being launched this year, MCC will work closely with the ECB on how they can complement this system.