Derbyshire County Cricket Club is delighted to announce the first Girls’ Emerging Player Programme intake.
The Girls’ EPP, overseen by Head of Women’s Cricket, Jon Dyson, will be working throughout the year training at The County Ground.
The players will be working closely with Club Coaching staff and Science & Medical staff including Gareth Marshall (Head Coach of Girls Pathway), David Barr (Girls Pathway Coach), Lee Pote (University of Derby Senior Strength & Conditioning Lecturer) and Yasir Raza (Physiotherapist), as well as accessing nutrition and psychological support.
The selected Pathway players from the U15 – U18 CAG squads for the 2025 intake are: Phoebe Blurton, Hana Mae Carr, Erynn Crosby, Ava Ford, Freya Harper, Sophia McCollum, Anika Verma, Poppy Ward and Keira Wood.
The winter programme consists of a weekly 3-hour session refining individual skill sets as well as fielding group work. There is also classroom-based work focusing on Individual Development Plans (IDP’s) allowing players and coaches to identify and agree common areas of development which will be reviewed and stretched during the programme.
As well as their EPP contact time the players also access two hours a week training with their own County age group.
Jon Dyson said: “We are excited about the potential of this group of players, they all possess quite different skill sets but all share a commonality in terms of each having a high ceiling. The additional contact time this programme offers will allow us to build their confidence, give clear direction of where their gains are and underpin sound basic technical skills alongside physical, tactical, lifestyle and mental development.
“We are keen for players to take responsibility for their own development and the IDP’s allow a framework for players to identify not only strengths but weaknesses, this document will travel with them along their Pathway journey and hopefully become a record of their time with us.
“Resilience is something we talk to the players about regularly and this programme allows them to set their building blocks around personal energy, goal setting, inner drive, flex and partnerships.
“There will be expectations that players will transfer their own behaviours amongst their peers within their CAG squads as examples of leadership traits, so their responsibilities stretch beyond their role as an EPP player.”
