INTRODUCTION Cricket is Australia’s favourite summer sport, many of us have grown up playing the

game – once having the childhood dream of pulling on the Baggy Green Cap of

Australia, while others are simply passionate about their sport and see it as the sport

to play while their football boots are hanging up following the winter months and

completion of winter sport.

The Young and Districts Cricket Association are currently under-going a massive

overhaul with its senior cricket set up, one of the key factors identified for

improvement as part of the revamp was to reinvent the representative set up in and

around Young.

Throughout the 2014/2015 cricket season, with the limited number of

representative cricket matches played or that Young were invited to take part in, the association struggled

to get enough players to field a team yet alone be competitive in their matches.

In the last representative hit out for the season, a challenge for the one hundred year old Grinstead Cup

against Parkes on March 1 2015 just nine players, mainly junior and B-Grade players made the journey to

represent the association in the challenge.

Therefore a new Representative Development Pathway Plan (RDPP) has been constructed, in consultation

with Level 3 accredited coach Neil D’Costa (current coach of the Campbelltown Ghosts and former coach of

players such as Michael Clarke and the late Phillip Hughes) to help reinvent the representative set up here

in Young, and to bring pride back to pulling on the colours.

Young. It is where we live, where most of our families are, where our children go to school, where we work

and most importantly where we call home. It should be the aim of every child currently taking part in Milo

In2Cricket, Milo T20 Blast and the Young Junior Cricket programs to one day pull on the Young colours and

represent their town – our town in cricket.

The local people of Young, even those who have the faintest of interest in sport should feel the pride and

passion that our representative players feel, and will get to the point they turn to the sporting pages in the

local media following the weekend of each representative match to see how our representative side has

played.

It is however the role of our A-Graders, B-Graders and leading junior players to start putting the pride into

representative cricket.

We are the custodians of the game of cricket, and it is our role, whether a potential representative player or

not, to help put in place developmental pathways plans for future generations of the game to be able to step

into when the time comes.

This Representative Development Pathway Plan (RDPP) is established to outline the new look representative

set up, policies in which our representative players are expected to adhere to, and to help outline selection

policies and consequences of not following the policies.

The RDPP is not done to ‘abuse our power’ but to put in place the developmental steps that are required to

not only provide us with a representative set up, but to give us a representative squad and set up that is

capable of winning tournaments and challenges we are entered into.

This is our town, this is our team and it’s time that we bring pride back into our representative squads.

Brendon Meynell

Representative Cricket Co-Ordinator

Young and Districts Cricket Association

FRESH LOOK, FRESH ATTITUDE

As part of the new look Young and Districts Cricket Association representative set up, and through our

sponsorship agreements with Kookaburra Sports and Black Chrome all representative players will be given:

- A Young Cricket Association playing shirt – complete with sponsors logos – to be worn during

Representative Matches ONLY;

- A Young Cricket Association polo shirt – with sponsors logos – to be worn to and from the games,

as well as to any other ‘official’ representative event;

- A Young Cricket Association training shirt – with sponsors logos – to be worn during training;

- A Young Cricket Association singlet shirt – with sponsors logos – to be worn if wanted to training,

or while waiting to bat at representative matches;

- A Young Cricket Association playing cap – with sponsors logos – to be worn while playing

representative matches;

The only clothing representative players will need to provide for themselves when it comes to

representative cricket is their white cricket pants.

This removes the current issues we have of players wearing a number of different styled, and types of

shirts, while playing and helps build the pride in pulling on the playing shirt when preparing to play

representative cricket.

Representative players must wear the gear supplied in order for us to for fill sponsorship agreements, and

for the representative side to be united as one, to be unified as a team both on the way to matches, at

matches and at any after match functions.

BUILDING A LEGACY By making these required changes to the Representative Cricket set up we, together as one, are laying the

foundations to building a legacy. Whether we agree to it or not we, as a combined unit, are becoming role

models for the younger cricketers in the area.

Forget about teams past, although there have been some great players who have pulled on the shirts and

represented Young we are starting from scratch and the new representative legacy starts now.

Just as all international teams do, when players are selected to play for Young they will be issued their

playing number. For example: The first player named in our first squad will be given the number one, this

will be etched onto his playing shirt and will be noted. This is his number now, and his MyCricket Career

Statistics will from then on keep track of his representative career progress.

With our new playing attire, and new training equipment, it is us who need to lead by example and set the

standard.

No player is guaranteed a place in the representative team, with it being important that players from all

grades be rewarded for performing – if others are struggling. A full selection policy is outlined later but

unlike previous representative teams both in and around Young, at State level, and International level

players will not be picked on ‘who they are’, rather they will be picked on ‘what they are doing’.

It is important that we have people who want to play for Young in our sides, people who want to see Young

Cricket succeed at a representative level.

To assist in setting up a successful Young Cricket Representative outlet for years to come our Development

Squad will consist of A-Grade players, B-Grade players and leading junior players – ensuring that over the

coming seasons as players start pulling out of actively playing cricket we have players ready to step up and

we don’t need to start from scratch with the next batch of potential representative players.

By being in an around the system, training with the regular representative squad and possibly getting the

odd run in ‘dead rubber’ matches we are not just setting up a new representative set up for the coming

season or two, but for the future.

When players have earned their representative call up, through performances in their respective grades,

and training, and are presented with their Young Cricket Association playing shirts we all become equal, we

become a team – no one person is better than the other due to the grade in which they play in during the

regular cricket season.

Once the playing shirts are pulled on – we must act like a team, treat others as our team mates, and work

together as a team for the results that we want.

2015/2016 SEASON The 2015/2016 cricket season is the first season in which our brand new representative set up is put into

place, there will be some trial and error and some mistakes made throughout the season as we all learn

the new, successful way of being a representative set up.

The Young Cricket Association’s Representative set up will see the side compete in the McDonalds Plate,

Lachlan Cricket Council Championship, and make regular challenges for the Grinstead Cup.

To help assist in fine tuning our representative team, and to provide them with additional match practice

as a team before making our regular representative challenges, a number of friendly representative

matches in the process of being organized or discussed with the relevant authority which includes home

matches against:

- Wagga Wagga;

- Dubbo;

- Gold Coast Dolphins;

- Saint Michaels;

- Wagga RSL;

- Wagga Wagga Blues;

- Parkes;

- Amongst various others…

The aim of the friendly matches are to help us provide additional match practice for our new representative

set up.

It is the view that these matches will be held early in the season, before all other competitions start, and

will be Representative Weekends in which Saturday will feature a One Day Match, and Sunday a Twenty20

Match.

In order to be as prepared as possible for the representative that lays on the horizon representative

training will start on Wednesday 8 July 2015 at the cricket nets at Cranfield Oval.

From that point, throughout the course of the season, training will be held each fortnight from 4:30pm. It is

part of the Selection Policy (below) that any potential representative player must attend at least one of

these training sessions.

The 2015/2016 cricket season in Young will kick off with a Probable vs. Possible match, where at the

completion of the match the first representative side will be selected.

It is the aim of the Young and Districts Cricket Association Selection Panel to be competitive in all

representative matches, with the view of winning representative trophies and competitions in the next 24

months.

SELECTION POLICY The following is the selection policy of the Young and Districts Cricket Association Selection Panel, when

selecting representative teams for any upcoming representative matches.

- Players must be registered to the Young and Districts Cricket Association and have paid the $10

Administrative Fee associated in registering;

- Players must have attended at least ONE of the two monthly training sessions;

- Players must have confirmed availability prior to team selection;

- Players must be performing in their respective grades;

- Selectors must ignore ‘favouritism’ and select team based on performances in the players

respective grades, and effort at training;

- Selectors must confirm player availability before finalizing the team;

Disciplinary Action

- Players who refuse to ‘travel’ for away games will be immediately overlooked for the next home

representative match;

- Players who confirm their availability and then pull out of the squad leading into the match without

a ‘reasonable’ reason will be banned from playing for their club (either in A-Grade or B-Grade) the

closest Saturday to the player pulling out;

- Players who fail to wear team attire to, from and during matches run the risk of being excluded

from selection;

- NO TRAIN, NO PLAY! If a player fails to train at either of the two training sessions in a month

they will not be considered for selection for representative duties.