Richard White NCU PRO

The Andrew White NCU Cricket Academy has now been in operation for three years and continues to go from strength to strength. The Academy was originally established to provide opportunities for young talented players within the NCU to obtain specialist support. Thus, enabling more of those young players, both male and female, to gain international representation at Irish level at the various age groups. The Academy programme has had some success in that regard during the last three years, with some of the Academy graduates going on to gain representative honours at underage level, and others on the cusp of achieving that. We are delighted that the Academy support along with other coaches in the NCU system, has enabled so many players to achieve representative opportunities.

Following a recent review of the Academy, the NCU Representative Directorate has agreed that the 2018-19 Academy intake will focus on players within the 17-23 age group who have the potential to gain future Senior Interprovincial and/or Senior International representation, and who currently are not involved in any Cricket Ireland Pathway Programmes.

The Academy members will also be actively participating in the 2019 Emerging Knights fixtures, which it is anticipated will have up to have 10 match days.

Players selected for the Andrew White NCU Cricket Academy 2018-19 are as follows:

• Aditya Adey (Muckamore)
• Jack Burton (Carrickfergus)
• Matthew Foster (CSNI)
• Sam Gordon (Muckamore)
• Jamie Magowan (North Down)
• John Matchett (CIYMS)
• Matthew McCord (Carrickfergus)
• James Metcalfe (Instonians)
• Ben Rose (Instonians)
• Morgan Topping (CSNI)
• Harry Warke (Carrickfergus)
• Aaron Wright (CSNI)

Andrew White commented, 'The group of young players selected have shown promising performances at various stages during the Premier League last year and I look forward to helping them in their quest to push for representative honours in 2019. Simon Johnston's coaching expertise and commitment to assisting the players achieve their potential will be invaluable over the coming months. The Academy is indebted to the continued support of Ulster University, O'Neills and MG2 Cricket who have been great supporters of the Academy since its inception'.