Outcome: Produce Academy and Professional players by investing in individualised programmes

The Emerging Player Programmes exist to support high potential by delivering individualised programmes to select players aged between 13 and 18. Through these programmes we provide players of high potential with crucial early development opportunities and a clear route into Academy and professional structures with Sussex Cricket or the Southern Vipers.

We aim to identify and select players of high potential in order to focus talent development delivery and investment in those selected. We target the identification of players with the greatest potential to meet the needs of the Academy and Professional environment and to prepare those players for the transition into Academy structures or elite programmes. The longitudinal opportunities within the Emerging Player programmes provide selected players with time investment and the crucial environments and support to develop, progress and enhance the core foundations of their future performance.

The process of selection for our Emerging Player Programmes includes the identification and retention of players with the greatest likelihood of long-term success. Selection decisions are reached by making an assessment of current performance relative to peers and a prediction of future potential, whilst giving careful consideration to a range of other factors. Our dedicated pool of Coaches, including those responsible for the Emerging Player Programmes and those working across our Pathway are utilised in order to collate aggregated information that informs selection decision making. The final selections decisions are made by the Performance Cricket Manager and Emerging Players Head Coach. Our priority remains to select players with the greatest potential, who we believe can achieve long-term outcomes and/or those whose performances are consistently or significantly above their peers.

The health of our Emerging Player Programmes is largely measured through the progression and performance of the selected players and our ability to convert potential into academy structures, our adult teams or beyond into the professional game.