Overview
County Age Group (CAG) pathway cricket provides the opportunity for our very best players to test themselves against the best players in other counties.
Girls CAG age groups operate at 4 age groups from under 11s to under 18s. Our CAG coaching teams work together with our Head of Pathways, to develop well rounded winter training programmes, with the main aim to ensure players are prepared mentally and physically for the challenging season ahead.
Players who play at CAG level have a fantastic opportunity to showcase their talents, which may lead to selection for the Dorset Emerging players Programme (EPP) programmes for girls or even a professional Franchise Academy programme.
County Age Group Pathway Selection policy
The Cricket Dorset Ltd is responsible for the organisation of County Age Group representative cricket, which is played under the Dorset Cricket badge.
A group of Lead Coaches are responsible for the delivery of the programme and the identification of talented players. This starts with larger groups of players at our younger age groups and finishes with a much smaller pool at the under 18s age group.
Starting out, our under 11s will be focused on players to be given as equal an opportunity as possible in a season, using a rotation of players and offering different match scenario roles should be the norm. At these age group, the main aim is to play lots of cricket covering all formats i.e. T20, 100 Ball 40/50 over. Assessments for all players will normally take place in August/September, where the coaching team will observe the attendees and decide on the winter's intake of players.
This allows us to select the pools of players at under 13 and above based on our coaching teams knowledge and assessment sessions are only open to players we did not see in the Pathway the previous year. At these age groups we are still focused on playing lots of roles in lots of formats but a focus starts to move towards the ECB competitions at under 14 and up. We will also begin to identify individuals in certain roles and be looking to identify the highly talented players who will join our Emerging Player Programme (EPP).
At under 15s and 18s, we start to focus more on performance and those that have genuine potential to go onto a professional Franchise Academy or the Dorset Cricket Women's first team.
It is natural that we will look at statistics within our selections but the younger the player, the less we will use statistics as a selection tool. The older the player is, the greater the significance of statistics and performance in the journey onto higher levels.
We do not believe that the door is ever shut to players at any age and we ask clubs to continue to put forward players to the CAG Lead coaches at all times. We would expect any player being put forward for assessment by a club to be consistently performing at the same level as the existing Pathway members at their respective age group.
We recognise that selection can be a difficult and subjective process but fully supports the Lead Coaches and Head of Pathways in their final decisions.
Anyone with a grievance regarding selection should contact one of the CAG Lead Coaches at their age group first but only if they have grounds for believing that unfair practice has occurred. This must be supported by evidence. If the issue cannot be resolved with the CAG Lead Coaches then the matter should be escalated to the respective Head of Pathways or the Managing Director.
The Dorset Cricket Board believes that cricket is a sport which encourages fair play and teaches discipline, as well as helping children to deal with disappointment and overcome it. The Board encourages all players not selected to work hard, improving their skills and make their way back into contention for selection. All representative cricket is very competitive and it is a great honour for any player to be selected. It requires hard work, dedication and commitment. The Board ask that parents understand that it is not possible for the coaches to get every decision 100 per cent correct and encourage all players to prove that they are worthy of selection.
