Two Durham Cricket Academy players have been selected to represent the North in the this week’s England Young Lions match at Loughborough University, which gets underway on Saturday.
Harry Crawshaw and Alfie Taylor-Clarke have been named in a 26 player squad from across the country as preparations continue for squad selection for the England under-19s World Cup in 2022.
Both Crawshaw and Taylor-Clarke have been successful within age group cricket in the county, representing the North of England at the David English Bunbury Festival and ECB Super 4s. Crawshaw was one of the latest of the Durham Academy to make his Durham first team debut this summer in the Vitality Blast, while both have been regular members of the clubs 2XI team this season.
The camp which will take place at the ECB Performance Centre, Loughborough University will see the 26 players combined into North and South sides playing two 50 over fixtures on Saturday and Sunday.
Durham Cricket Academy Director, John Windows said: “This selection for the England Young Lions fixtures is is credit to the lads for their performances and hard work they have put in both on and off the field in recent seasons.
“They have worked very hard into the lead up to selection, so now it is about putting what they know well into action this weekend.
“As a county it is once again very pleasing to have Durham being represented in ECB youth programmes and they have a fantastic opportunity to show what they can do and thoroughly deserve this opportunity.”
Left hand top order bat, Harry Crawshaw said: “I’m looking forward to heading down to the Young Lions camp this weekend. It’s a great opportunity to test myself against the best players in the country, hopefully I can put in some strong performances.”
Left arm-seamer, Alfie Taylor-Clarke added: “I’m really excited to be going to the camp this weekend as it is another good opportunity to showcase my skills and test myself against the best. It will be a really enjoyable experience and something I can look back on in the future and learn from later on in my career.”