Homegrown talent appeals to Hall

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The days of Northants fielding a host of South African-born players appear to have passed, much to the delight of captain Andrew Hall

When Andrew Hall agreed to join Northamptonshire in September 2007, the club was heavily criticised for its over-reliance on Kolpak signings.

Indeed, on his first-class debut for his new side against Leicestershire at Grace Road the following summer, Hall was one of five South African-born players in the visitors’ team, along with Riki Wessels, Johan van der Wath, Nicky Boje and Lance Klusener.

Fast forward to the end of the 2011 season and the Northants side that gained victory over Gloucestershire featured just two players born outside of the UK and Ireland, skipper Hall accompanied by veteran Sri Lanka all-rounder Chaminda Vaas.

What is more, several of the club’s English players appear sure to have their best years ahead of them, with the likes of Alex Wakely, Rob Newton and David Willey all aged 23 or under.

Reflecting on the homegrown talent now emerging at Wantage Road, Hall told ecb.co.uk: "It’s something that (head coach) David (Capel) and I spoke about when I first signed back in 2007. We wanted to move forward long-term, start bringing through younger players and really work on Northamptonshire young players who are English-qualified.

“For a lot of years we got a lot of stick for the amount of overseas players we had in our system, but at that stage we felt that was a necessity to get our level of cricket up to a position where we could actually get the younger players to come through and play a really competitive brand of cricket.

“That’s starting to happen now and it’s really exciting times for the club.”

Together with Wakely, an elegant middle-order batsman who represented England Under-19s, Northants’ most promising talent is seamer Jack Brooks, who missed the closing stages of the season through injury.

Brooks can hardly be described as a youngster at 27, yet he remains relatively green in terms of experience, having only broken into the county side towards the end of the 2009 campaign.

A series of impressive performances in 2011 saw Brooks rewarded with a call-up to the England Performance Programme squad and Hall added: “He’s somebody that I do believe has got a lot to offer, for England as well as Northants.

Jack Brooks was called into the England Performance Programme squad this winter. Hall said of the rangy seamer: "He's somebody that I do believe has a lot to offer, for England as well as Northants."

“On the one hand I really want him to play for us next season because he’s such a key bowler for us, but on the other hand I would love him to make the next step and get picked for England.

“He’s a really exciting prospect, a great player. He’s someone who has come up from being a virtual unknown and he has worked hard, so fair play to him.”

Hall continued: “It’s the same for someone like Alex Wakely who is also in one of the England Performance squads (the Potential England Performance Programme).

“The way that he is going about his work leading up to next season is really exciting. I have spoken to him about expectations from my side with younger players and he’s one of the guys who I have always felt has got a lot of potential. For him to get that opportunity to play in the PEPP and go to Sri Lanka and really move forward is very exciting. He’s somebody to watch out for hopefully in the future.”

Hall believes the progress of Brooks and Wakely is a clear sign that Northants are heading in the right direction.

“The guys can see that they can still get picked for England, or get recognised, even though we are a Division Two team,” he added.

“Somebody like Jack Brooks was looking to go to a Division One club at one stage but he can see the merits of being with us and it’s really positive for us to know that these types of players are very much looking to play for us.”

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