Wiltshire Cricket launch County Boys Under 18 B team

Many players and parents may be aware that for the 2020 season, the ECB have changed the previous county boys under 17s competition to be an under 18s competition. This decision was made following consultation of First Class and Non First Class counties across the country. Wiltshire’s preference would have been for the competition to remain as an U17 competition, due in large to the fact that; a) we run a 2^nd XI programme that allow players post 17 to play within a performance environment, and b) because by moving the competition to an U18 age group it means that we will now have three years’ worth of players competing for places in one age group team.

On point (b) above, it does have to be accepted that when players go past under 15s cricket there is an increased focus on U17 (now U18) cricket being very much about a performance environment where players selected are those deemed to have a chance of playing at a higher level in the future. As such, some players won’t be selected for county age group cricket straight from under 15s. At this age group it also becomes more important for players to be playing and performing in adult club cricket as an indicator for selection. Having said this though, Wiltshire Cricket does not feel it is right that we only have one county age group team covering three years’ worth of players and as a result we are pleased that we will be launching an under 18 B team for 2020.

The creation of an Under 18 B team will give an increased opportunity for players moving out of Under 15s cricket to play within a performance environment but it will also give an opportunity for other later developers (u17s or u18s) to play within the performance environment. Most importantly, the creation of an U18 B team will provide twice as many cricketers across the three year groups with the opportunity to play some representative cricket. For the 2020 season, the U18B team will be playing the following fixtures:

• Sunday 2^nd August v Gloucestershire Under 17 Development
• Monday 10^th August v Dorset Under 18 B
• 2 x matches v Berkshire Under 18 B – dates to be confirmed

Fixtures can be followed here on our new website within the county boys under 18s page

At the end of the 2020 season we will review the success of the U18B format and will decide from there what the provision of a winter programme and future summer matchplay programme may look like