‘Door is open and we want hungry players’

The new regime start their tenure in earnest this week when a Hampshire Academy side visits the KGV for four fixtures starting on Thursday.

Stuart Le Prevost, the former Island captain who was invited to take on the chairman role by incoming director of cricket Jeremy Frith, hopes to create an atmosphere which people will be attracted to and allow them to thrive.

‘The club scene has been really good in Guernsey over the last couple of years. Maybe because of Covid and us not going away, everything has been focused on club sides, so those clubs sides have got a bit more bite about them,’ said Le Prevost, who is joined on the selection panel by Frith, captain Josh Butler, Rob Thomson and Gary Rich.

‘From a personal note, I always enjoyed club cricket – back in the day, we had some really fierce tussles with people – but then when we put a Guernsey shirt on I felt we were all wanting to be there for Guernsey and wanting to be part of a team. Occasionally, in the last couple of years, I’ve felt that perhaps hasn’t been the case.

‘If you are picked to play for Guernsey it’s a huge honour, it’s great.

‘There are probably 30, 40, 50 guys who are playing club cricket who are saying “you lucky swine, I’d love to be able to do that and go off to Holland” or wherever. So for you to be one of those guys is a massive thing and just for the privilege of doing that and wanting to do that is something I’d really like to get a little bit back into the fray.’

Guernsey will face the Hampshire Academy in two T20 games as well as two 50-over contests, and that is part of a summer fixture programme that also includes a trip to the Netherlands in August, inter-insulars in both formats, and the traditional matches against the MCC.

‘Hopefully going forward we can really put together decent fixture programmes that people are going to really want to be involved with.

‘Obviously, availability is a key thing. A week-long trip to Holland for some people might not be the [practical] thing, but actually we are happy for people to say “I can make the T20 part of it” or “I can make these three days, can it work?”

‘It is absolutely not a closed door and we really want people to feel part of it,’ Le Prevost added.

More on this week’s Guernsey Press Sport Podcast