At Parley Cricket Club, our youth section aims to help every young player learn, grow, and enjoy their cricket. Our philosophy is built on fairness, development, enjoyment, and respect — values that have helped us become one of the most successful clubs in Dorset and Hampshire for producing home‑grown adult cricketers. We want players to feel supported, challenged, and inspired, with long‑term development always placed above short‑term results.
In League matches, all players will be treated equally in terms of selection for matches they are eligible to play in. This will involve 95% of our matches.
The exception will be cup matches, where we will select our strongest available team.
History shows that success in these competitions has provided the club with valuable publicity and helps us get recognised amongst leading clubs in the Hampshire and Dorset areas. This will both give us a guide if we are developing players properly and also provide players with something to aim for.
To support this principle, the club uses a detailed player‑tracker spreadsheet throughout both the indoor and summer seasons. This allows coaches and managers to monitor how many matches each player has been selected for, helping us ensure that, wherever possible, opportunities are shared fairly across squads.
(a) All players will get opportunities to bat in various positions in the batting order. This will help their development in that they will learn to bat in different game situations, rather than always bat in the top/middle/lower positions. It will also mean that they encounter different types of bowlers. Those players who are currently County Pathway standard will learn how to win/save a game at the end of an innings, rather than always bat in the top 3/4. Those players who are currently considered tail-end batsmen, and therefore only bat when there are a few overs to go or a couple of wickets left, will get the opportunity of a longer innings.
(b) All bowlers will get the opportunity to bowl at different stages of the innings, so that they learn to bowl in various game situations, from looking to get wickets early in the innings to trying to contain the run rate later on, which will also mean they need to think about field settings more and bowling to certain fields.
(c) The captaincy will be shared around members of the team. This means that more players get to learn about the tactical side of the game and appreciate what is involved in being a captain of a side.
(d) Players not to be afraid of making mistakes in matches and training, but emphasis on this is how they learn to be better players.
(e) Players to help each other improve and enjoy the game.
We firmly believe that by adopting the above approach, the following will be achieved –
1. Players will become better all-round cricketers as they progress through the youth system.
2. More players will enjoy their cricket and therefore still be playing when they are 16.
3. Players will learn to respect all teammates, as valuable members of the side.
4. Coaches/Managers/Parents will learn that mistakes will be made on the field that could cost the team the match, but a long-term view is much more important.
VERY IMPORTANT
Following the above principles has resulted in Parley having the best record out of all clubs in Dorset and Hampshire for developing players through youth cricket into adult cricket. 3 years ago the adult 1st team squad that were promoted into the Southern League consisted entirely of players that came through our youth section. However, will we always get it right? Almost certainly not, as we are human and emotion can sometimes get the better of us. If you think we have failed to deliver our expectations, then please let us know in a constructive manner, so that we can endeavour to resolve the issue.
We expect our young cricketers to respect everybody involved in cricket and to ensure they follow these principles –
1. Never show dissent to an umpire.
2. Never make derogatory remarks either to, or involving, an opposing player.
3. After the match, shake hands with the opposition and thank both umpires and scorers.
4. After our batting innings, wait on the boundary edge and clap the opposition fielders.
5. After our fielding innings, allow the last 2 batsmen to leave the field first and clap them.
6. Always take pride in your appearance, which involves having your shirt tucked in and any protective batting equipment worn inside your trousers.
Following these, will also develop ‘Life Skills’, as some of them are not always easy if the cricket is going badly.
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