European hopefuls live dream

Youngsters from Scotland and Ireland are among some of Europe’s finest talent attending the ICC European Academy in India.

For the first time the annual academy is taking place outside of Europe as it relocates to the Cricket Club of India (CCI) in Mumbai.

Ireland boast four representatives in Gary Kidd, Fintan McAllister, Andrew Poynter and Gary Wilson; Scotland have three in Richard Berrington, Andrew Hislop and Scott Redhead while Blane Queripel and Kris Moherndl come from Guernsey.

The participants, all aged between 18 and 22, come from six of Europe’s 27 ICC associate and affiliate member countries – Gibraltar, Guernsey, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands and Scotland – and for the majority it will be their first experience of cricket on the sub-continent.

The squad of 14 is taking part in an intense five-day coaching and skills programme followed by a string of fixtures against select sides from the CCI, the Global Cricket School (GCS) and the Mumbai State Under-19s.

The academy will play at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium on Saturday © Getty Images

The first fixture took place against a CCI select XI on Wednesday and on Saturday the team will play a fixture against the Mumbai side at the Wankhede Stadium - Mumbai’s test venue.

Accompanying the youngsters are a highly qualified ICC Europe coaching team including the ECB’s head of elite coach development Gordon Lord, Ireland’s 2007 World Cup coach and recently appointed coaching consultant to Scotland’s national side Adrian Birrell, and Gloucestershire’s assistant coach Stuart Barnes.

Academy Manager and ICC European Development Officer – Performance, Philip Hudson, who is leading the coaching team said: “As expected, the first full day at the CCI has been tough, with the boys having to adjust to very different conditions to those they experience in their home countries.

“We decided to move this year’s academy to India for exactly that reason - to further develop the players’ skills in a tough environment that will test all involved.”

He added: “We are already beginning to see how the boys are absorbing and benefiting from the wealth of advice on offer to them over here.

“This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity for these lads to take the next step in their cricketing careers and we hope that they will make the most of it.”

The academy has been funded by the ICC European Development Program with an additional place being made available thanks to the support of the GCS.