Yorkshire’s Disability structure will maintain their drive to promote young talent in 2025, with the addition of a specific Under 21s training group amongst a host of exciting planned changes.
Changes in the coaching department have been implemented as Owen Jervis, who effectively has a director of cricket role, and his team build towards next summer.
England Physical Disability star Cameron Cooper, a graduate of the Yorkshire Cricket College, has been appointed as the new captain of the D40 Quest League team – the county’s first XI. He replaces Matt Bateman, who is struggling with a long-standing finger injury.
Jervis will continue to have management oversight across the entire Disability county squads, taking responsibility for the teams and as safeguarding lead. But in terms of things such team selection, he will take a more backseat role.
“I will continue to work closely with the Yorkshire Cricket Board, the county club and ECB to deliver the objectives around equity, inclusion and diversity,” he said.
First-team coach Callum Robertson has moved on because of work commitments. He has been replaced by Steve Bamforth from Higham Cricket Club.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Yorkshire’s new D40 Quest captain, Cameron Cooper, bowls at Headingley in September.
Bamforth will be assisted by Mark Sugden, who is also assistant to Darren Spooner with the D40 Pursuit (second) team.
Yorkshire’s S9 softball coaching team remains the same, with Russ Ingram assisted by Mark Atkins-Sloan.
You could almost describe the Under 21s training squad as a fourth team, though they won’t play any competitive matches as a group, only some friendlies.
“A lot of this is around bringing young players together in one group, where we can work on both on-field skills and their off-field development and help them with what the future looks like for them,” said Jervis.
“Whilst a number of the players will integrate into our various teams, we’ve put the Under 21s together because these are our future and we want to work with them together.
“We spoke last year about focusing on youth and progressing that side of things, and we did that – very successfully. We had a 30 percent increase in players this last year, from 28 to 43.
Picture by YCCC. Yorkshire Disability team manager Owen Jervis.
“Our first project will to be to create and develop our Under 21s players with specific training sessions at Bradford Park Avenue.
“We’re also planning a pre-season tour for this group in April and intend to play fixtures throughout the season, in addition to the competitive county matches.”
Mark Sugden, whose wicketkeeper-batter son Curtis was a breakthrough star for Yorkshire this summer, will lead the coaching duties for the Under 21s group. He will be assisted by England Physical Disability and Yorkshire seamer Alex Jervis, who will combine coaching and playing duties.
Seam bowler Cooper, the county’s new Quest team captain, is a Yorkshire Quest Championship title winner from 2023, an England PD player and a Disability Premier League.
Scarborough’s Cooper will lead a combined leadership group including batter Kyle Clayton as vice captain and Alex Jervis, who will extend his U21 assistant coach work into the Quest team, supporting players with mentoring and taking a safeguarding lead.
Owen Jervis added: “Cameron is now an established international and is bringing some of that learning back into what he’s doing with Yorkshire.
Picture courtesy of Darren Spooner. Yorkshire D40 Pursuit coach Darren (left) and Jasper Spooner, who plays for the county.
“I think he will be a great leader for this group.
“What we have done, just to give it some context, we had three candidates who all brought something different.
“So I asked Gordon Laidlaw, our former captain, to lead a panel that would make a recommendation based on feedback from players, other captains, parents and other professionals from within the organisation.
“We got a robust process in place, and Gordon came back with the recommendation and concept of a sort of coalition.
