Picture by Simon Wilkinson/SWPix.com. Yorkshire’s lead performance analyst Harrison Allen is helping scour the Premier Leagues across the county for untapped talent.
Lead performance analyst Harrison Allen has described the standard of league cricket across Yorkshire as “pretty amazing” as the White Rose club continue to scour the county for talent.
Yorkshire’s new management team, led by Gavin Hamilton, have begun a league cricket scouting mission this summer, aimed at unearthing any untapped talent across the five Premier Leagues.
They are the Bradford and Huddersfield Leagues, the Yorkshire Premier Leagues North and South and the North Yorkshire and South Durham League.
Allen is keeping his eagle-eye across the leagues, concentrating on searches for – but by no means exclusively so – 17-22-year-olds who can potentially come into first-team contention for Anthony McGrath.
The Yorkshire Women’s Premier League is also being monitored.
“I have played a little bit in the Aire Wharfe League, so not in the Premier Leagues, and the standard is very high in that league,” said Allen. “So it just shows.
“I came from the South Notts League, which was a good standard of cricket. But it just feels different in Yorkshire. It’s a big, big thing on a Saturday, which is pretty cool.
“You go around and you see players and the stats that guys have got going back 10, 20 or even 30 years.
“Look at Richard Robinson, who is our head of grounds. His stats in the Bradford League, the amount of runs he scored, are very good. Someone like a David Wainwright, who is coaching here, still plays and does very well.
“But there are plenty of examples of current and former Yorkshire players who go into the leagues and don’t necessarily tear things up. That indicates what kind of level it is, which is a cool thing.”
Allen has been tasked by general manager of cricket Hamilton to produce regular scouting reports on players who are scoring big runs and taking lots of wickets but also ones who are standing out in different areas such as scoring rates and wickets taken in key phases of an innings.
From there, players will be looked at further by scouts who will view them live in action. If things progress, they will get chances to represent the county at second-team level. That has already happened with some players during the last few months.
“This is a new thing, so it will develop more and more with time,” continued Allen. “But we’re where we want to be at the moment. I think we’re in a good place.
“We’re in the stage of the season with the twos where there’s a lot of games and a lot of managing workloads with players and things like that because we’re swapping from format to format. It’s the same with every club.
“But there will be opportunities.
“There’s a new rule around getting players who play for us heart-scanned, which impacts who we can play dependent on whether they’ve been scanned or not and how quickly we can get them scanned.
“Matty Rees (seamer) is someone we’ve had a look at from Castleford. He’s played National Counties before, has come in and has done well for us.
“That’s worked out, and it happened a bit quicker than I thought it was going to be. That’s been a nice win for us, and there are a few other people we’re keeping an eye on.
“In the last month, we’ve also had some Academy games against some League Rep teams and stuff like that, so that’s been another chance to have a look at people.
“At the minute, it’s just taking a view of what’s out there and seeing where we can take it all.
“I’ll get questions from Jimmy Martin and Tom Smith, like, ‘Who’s doing what, is there anyone that we should look at? That kind of stuff.
“Once we’ve had more data, more seasons’ worth of stuff, it’ll be interesting to see how far it goes.”
Allen is keeping a keen eye on Play Cricket scorecards, live streams of matches and other video clips which club’s across the Broad Acres produce.
“Play Cricket is really good,” he added. “Some of the clubs even have videos which they put on there, which is really good. Castleford, for example, they clip up videos.
“Some of the scorers put things like wagon wheels up, which is even better for us.
“We can break it down further than just who’s the top run-scorer and who’s the top wicket-taker. We can see where they score in those runs and taking those wickets, who they’re against, what period of the game they’re in – all stuff like that.
“It’s basically fitting it around the areas we think we need.
“Since COVID, really, clubs have started streaming and scoring more online. So it’s just about tapping into that.
“At a number of clubs, we’re not far away from what we get in professional cricket, which is perfect.”
