Notts’ pathway enjoyed another packed schedule in 2024, playing 214 matches across the course of the summer.

On the boys’ side, four Academy products were awarded senior contracts during the season - with Farhan Ahmed, Sam Seecharan, Travis Holland and Tom Giles now part of the professional set up - while all of the Academy made at least one appearance in Second XI cricket during the season.

Byron Hatton-Lowe captained a Midlands side - featuring Academy team mate Akand Gangotra - at this year’s ECB Super 4s competition, and received a call-up to England Under-19s’ white-ball tri-series against Scotland and Ireland.

Meanwhile, Seecharan earned the Charles Vernon Price Award for the most improved Notts Academy player, and Holland featured in an England Under-19s invitational XI against Sri Lanka in a 50-over contest June.

On the girls’ side, 18-year-old Liv Baker was awarded her first senior contract with The Blaze at the end of the season after spending over seven years in the Nottinghamshire age group system, which she joined at the age of 10.

Baker was one of two Notts women, alongside Annie Williams, to feature in the School Games cricket finals in August and September, while Williams was named as a reserve player for England Women Under-19’s World Cup squad.

Further down the age groups, Notts were once again well represented at the Bunbury Festival - the ECB’s annual event for the country’s finest Under-15s cricketers - with Josh Beer joined by Oscar Butcher and Henry Hardy from the Emerging Player Programme.

From a team perspective, Nottinghamshire’s Under-18s sides both enjoyed pleasing white-ball campaigns, with the girls making the quarter-finals of the County T20 Cup while the boys were National Plate (50-over) runners-up to Sussex.

But the success of the player pathway perhaps was most epitomised, however, by the rise of two of its most recent products to earn their first-team caps. Ahmed began his season playing at Kidderminster against Worcestershire for the Under-18s, while Freddie McCann, in his first year on the staff, was eyeing a potential string of games in the Metro Bank One Day Cup.

By the end of the season, both had played pivotal roles in Nottinghamshire’s Division One survival in the County Championship - Ahmed (who signed a professional deal in July) grabbing an astonishing seven-fer (10 in the match) and McCann masterfully carving out a maiden century against champions Surrey at Trent Bridge, breaking several records along the way. 

The pair also featured in Youth ODIs and Youth Tests across the summer, with the former equalling the record for the highest under-19 ODI score for England (174) against Sri Lanka. 

The pair’s achievements in their first taste of professional cricket underpins the overall success of the Notts youth system.

“Farhan and Freddie have achieved astonishing things this year, but it is hard to say that any of it is surprising to us as they have worked incredibly hard to get to where they are now,” Elite Pathway Manager, Matt Wood, said.

“Having homegrown talent coming all the way through the system and becoming embedded in the first-team is a testament to the work that our staff, the players and their parents all put in.

 To say that four of our own products have been offered professional deals this year is very pleasing and we’re proud of all of them for their achievements.

“We’re now looking forward to welcoming our new cohort of Academy players, as we continue working towards our goal of preparing young athletes for the professional world as much as we can.”