AFTER FINISHING top in the MCC University Two-Day Championship as well as winning the MCC University Challenge at Lords last year, the future looks bright for both players and staff at Cardiff and Glamorgan University Centre for Cricketing Excellence. However, Director of Cricket Kevin Lyons is refusing to get carried away.
Funded by the MCC, the Cardiff and Glamorgan Academy, which has run for over ten years now, is one of six university-based centres of cricketing excellence in the UK. Split between Cardiff University, UWIC and Glamorgan University, the scheme allows students to undertake academic degrees whilst continuing their development as cricketers in the excellent facilities available at Glamorgan County Cricket Club, where they train every Wednesday afternoon. Further to this, the squad undertakes a rigorous fitness regime as well as one-to-one tuition throughout each week in preparation for a busy season. From April to June the squad will play no less than twenty-five matches, including games against professional opposition such as Middlesex and Northamptonshire County Cricket Clubs.
Captaining the side this year is the experienced Simon Butler, a Cardiff University student now in his fourth year of study. Butler capped a great season in 2007 by becoming the second winner of the Walter Lawrence Trophy, awarded to the batsman with the highest score against one of the other five University Centres. Making up the rest of the squad are four other Cardiff University students, one from the University of Glamorgan and sixteen students based at UWIC. Despite the loss of last year’s Championship-winning captain Richard Kaufman, the squad still boasts five players contracted to professional counties, as well as a good number of last year’s MCC Championship-winning squad.
Despite this, when asked if last year’s successes can be mirrored in 2008, Director of Cricket Kevin Lyons is staying firmly grounded on this season’s prospects. He said: “Outside the professional game, it is the development of the boys as players and as people that remains paramount”. While admitting that learning how to win cricket matches is a vital part of this development, he sees it as secondary to nurturing young talent who can perhaps one day compete in the first-class arena. “If we win the MCC Championship this year but none of the squad goes on to play first-class cricket then we will have to look at it,” commented Lyons, who senses that it would be a greater success not to win any trophies “but see more of the squad make the transition into first-class cricket”.
This developmental approach has already seen one of Lyons’ squad, Tom Allin from UWIC, secure a two-year summer contract at Warwickshire, where he will benefit from the stewardship of former England bowling coach Allan Donald. Lyons has identified Allin, a right-arm opening bowler whose father represented Glamorgan, as ‘the one to watch’ for this season. With over 40 years in the game at home and abroad Lyons’ inherent enthusiasm is clear, and despite wishing to remain focused on player development one can’t help but feel that if his enthusiasm rubs off on his players then Cardiff and Glamorgan UCCE may well enjoy another successful season.
