Trent Bridge Annual Report 2018

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE COUNTY CRICKET CLUB 2018 ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 58 and second team cricket, to ensure that our Academy players had the opportunity to take part in each of those squads. Particularly with the Under 17s and their three-day competition, it exposed our players to a longer for- mat of cricket and they responded well to the challenge. Louis Bhabra scored two fine hundreds in that competition – and Joey Evison posted an accomplished 185 against Staffordshire - as the team reached the semi-final stage, where they were eventually beaten byYorkshire. Wicketkeeper Tom Keast and leg-spinning all-rounder Connor Marshall are moving on from the Academy with our best wishes. Sol Budinger, a hard-hitting bats- man who also donned the gloves to good effect – together with Plumtree seamer Ishraj Jandu – have been newly added to form a group of ten as we move into 2019. Sol put in some outstanding per- formances for the Second XI last summer, scoring 744 runs across all formats, including a century against Lancashire. Jandu, meanwhile, had a fine year for the Under 17s which resulted in a second team debut. He has been part of our Emerging Player Programme for the past three years and attended the Club’s pre-season bowling camp in Oman, where he impressed Club Captain Steven Mullaney with his speed and away swing in the nets. The main ambition for the Academy in 2019 is to see our players pro- ducing performances in the Second XI that push them into the reckoning for first team selection. This group of players each has the talent and opportunity to achieve it, in what is the privileged position of being involved in professional cricket. They all enter 2019 with my best wishes. Lyndon James made his first team debut in 2018 Jack Blatherwick given a professional contract Nick Kimber on duty with England’s under 19s “THE MAIN AMBITION FOR THE ACADEMY IN 2019 IS TO SEE OUR PLAYERS PRODUCING PERFORMANCES IN THE SECOND XI THAT PUSH THEM INTO THE RECKONING FOR FIRST TEAM SELECTION.” Matt Wood