A group of players under consideration to be part of the Worcestershire Academy 2016-2017 intake – or the skill set programmes that lie beneath the full Academy – will participate in two 50 over matches against Gloucestershire Acaemy at Halesowen next week.
Ten players are on the short list for the next Academy programme which comes into effect from October 1 although in reality work gets underway in earnest from the beginning of November.
Those who are selected will join up with the players from the 2015-2016 Academy intake who are selected for a second year.
Academy coach Elliot Wilson said: "We've got some games at Halesowen next week (August 23 and 25) versus Gloucestershire which are a little bit different.
"They are not straightforward games. We are doing them in conjunction with Gloucestershire and we are having a day where both Gloucestershire and ourselves will be having a look at some batters and fast bowlers on Tuesday.
"We will be taking three or four seamers and they will bring three or four seamers and we will both bring three or batters each and we'll have a day's cricket where we will play in the middle and then we will do something similar but with the spinners on Thursday.
"We are looking at players who aren't quite yet on the Academy and are in and around the Academy enviroment with the view of just helping us confirm where we think they should be in the programme – either as a full Academy member or whether it's working with some of the programmes that sit just beneath the Academy in that pathway.
"All the guys that will be coming along on our behalf will be involved in the programme.
"But it's just another opportunity to see these guys playing the longer format of the game, the seamers and the spinners. They've got to get through some overs, do some work, will have to get through two, three spells, and it will be interesting for us."
The group of players under considering to be part of the Academy set-up for 2016-2017 are:
Ryan Wheldon
Xavier Clarke
Zain Hassan
Matthew Davis
Ewan Wilcox
Masharraf Shazad
Jamie Hammond
Mahaaz Ahmed
Callum Lee
George Balderson
