‘Oxfordshire Cricket and Sussex Cricket agree to work together to support the development of cricket in Oxfordshire’
Our partnership would allow Oxfordshire’s most talented players to ‘naturally’, rather than through ‘compulsion’ have the opportunity to work with and down at Sussex. Sussex would deliver their coaching and support locally in Oxfordshire.
Recent examples of benefits to the partnership (Oct 2015), include:
- A significant amount of expert coaching resources supplied by Sussex in Oxfordshire, ECB Level 4 Coach
- Sussex support to our Emerging Players Program, allowing the development of another partnership with MCS School.
- Support of the employment of our Performance Cricket Manager, Mark Farmer
- Availability of Will Beer (professional player) to Oxfordshire Minor Counties Championship Squad in 2015 - supporting a Championship winning side along with a number of Oxfordshire youth squad members.
- Harrison Ward’s 2-year academy contract on the Sussex Academy, with the vast majority of support and training given in Oxfordshire on his doorstep.
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The next steps for the partnership will be to work closely on developing our commercial partnerships, community cricket projects and continue to develop our strong player pathway joint-working.
Official Announcement of Partnership
Sussex County Cricket Club are delighted to announce a new partnership with the Oxfordshire Cricket Board. This ground-breaking partnership will see Sussex Cricket’s coaching staff working with Oxfordshire’s players, building on both parties’ proven track record in creating professional players by using growth mindset coaching, which in particular fulfils the Oxfordshire “from playground to test cricket” pathway. Oxfordshire will keep their players until at least 16 years of age, whilst there is also potential for dual-registration for professional players, which would see some of Sussex’s players representing Oxfordshire in Minor Counties cricket.
Zac Toumazi, Chief Executive of Sussex Cricket, said “I am delighted that we are partnering with the Oxfordshire Cricket Board. This will increase the talent pool population by some 635,000, taking the total to 2.2 million people and will see Sussex’s coaches working with Oxfordshire to develop the next generation of professional cricketers.'' “We have an established relationship with the Guernsey Cricket Board which is working very well and therefore believe that we have the experience to partner with the Oxfordshire Cricket Board and help fulfil their objectives. We will introduce a strategic development plan catering to the needs of Oxfordshire Cricket in all Professional aspects from commercial assistance to coach education, with Keith Greenfield, our Cricket Performance Manager, leading all coaching aspects.”
Chris Clements, Chairman of the Oxfordshire Cricket Board, said, “This is a significant step towards the transformation of cricket in Oxfordshire. Sussex are regarded by many as the leading first-class county in terms of organisational capability. Oxfordshire aspire to be the same in the non-first class game. I am sure that the Oxfordshire cricket community will be lifted by the news that we are entering a relationship both on and off the field with such a highly regarded first-class county. In return for access to our talent pool Oxfordshire will have the benefits of working closely with Zac and his team on a broad range of challenges. I am confident this partnership will be a major component of delivering our 2014-7 strategy. We look forward to our partnership with Sussex for many years to come.”