Island’s elite have plenty to aim for in 2023
The Island men’s squad can look forward to games against international opposition as well as budding first-class cricketers this summer.
Then, to top it off, Guernsey will be represented at the European Cricket Championship T10 tournament in Spain for the first time in the international equivalent of the European Cricket League competition that reigning Evening League champions Independents will play in next week.
Guernsey Cricket Board chief executive Mark Latter and new director of cricket Jeremy Frith revealed the outlook for the 2023 representative programme on this week’s Guernsey Press Sports Podcast, with Frith ‘really pleased’ to report that the Island side will be facing the Hampshire Academy in April as well as traditional tourists the MCC before the annual T20I Series against Jersey in July.
Podcast: Jeremy Frith and Mark Latter talk through the year ahead for Guernsey Cricket on this week's Guernsey Press Sport Podcast
Focus will then switch to the longer format of the game, with Guernsey pencilled in to visit the Netherlands in August to play against the Dutch A side as well as Denmark and potentially another international side on the same trip.
‘If you look at it, all in there’s about 20 days of cricket across the course of the year, which is a nice programme,’ said Frith.
‘We’re trying to have a series of fixtures a third of which should really stretch us, a third of which should be evenly matched and a third in which we should be in the kind of position where we could dominate.
‘That’s ideally what you want, but we also want to get to the stage where it’s “same time next year chaps” and we’ve got those types of teams coming over that we know will come year in, year out because it’s less [of a] administrative burden and there’s a feeling of familiarity and predictability about your fixtures.’
Another highlight of the season will be the return of the Guernsey Premier League T20 ‘franchise’ competition as part of the T20 offering.
‘We are looking at probably a three-team tournament over four days with three pros coming in, but we’re also going to have hopefully three young county academy players coming in as well, which works for the counties because they have got some of their senior players mentoring their ones but also we’ve got that definite high-quality six players coming in, which really ramps up the overall standard of what we are going to try and do,’ Frith said.
‘It gets us in a good place so we know if we pick from that tournament or use that tournament as some sort of basis for selection, the players will have had a really robust series of fixtures as part of it.’
Watch: Rozel Shield winners Indies head to Spain this weekend for the opening stage of the 2023 European Cricket League
The Island women’s team also have an enticing fixtures programme with a UK tour on the cards in May, followed by games against the RAF ahead of their T20Is against Jersey.
It was also announced that cricket development manager Ben Ferbrache will be head coach for the women’s team.
‘It is the same structure that we are trying to put in place for the women and the men. It will look slightly different because of availability and numbers, but the same level of focus really,’ said Frith.
He added: ‘I’m looking forward to getting to the end of September and seeing what’s happened and I’ll have a lot more knowledge of where everyone’s at, we’ll know what we’ve done, we’ll know what things we can start to add in or take away for the following years and again, looking towards hopefully a competition year in 2024, and getting our global ranking up because in terms of the senior Island sides, both men and women, moving up the rankings is one of the keys things and winning tournaments – that’s the game really.’
