CRICKET: Wiltshire places are up for grabs (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

CRICKET: Wiltshire places are up for grabs

1:00pm Friday 13th April 2012 in News By Dan Barnes

WILTSHIRE captain Joe Breet is hoping for a healty dose of competition for county places in the new season and warns that none of his players will be able to rest on their laurels.

Wiltshire are set to give debuts to young batsmen Toby Davies, 19 from Corsham, and Jack Mynott, 17 from South Wilts, in this Sunday’s friendly against Berkshire in Trowbridge.

Breet, who is in his second season skippering the county side, says that Wiltshire are still concentrating on developing youngsters and is hoping that they can continue to emerge and put pressure on his established players.

“We’ve still got a three to five-year plan where we’d like to try and develop the youngsters in the county – that means carrying on working with people like Ashur Morrison, Tom Bowler, Steve Bullen and Paul Robbins,” said Breet.

“We’ve always been loyal to the players who’ve played in the one-day and three-day games and people will still keep their places if they perform well but there are some good players coming through the academy and we’ll pick the players who are performing the best – if you’re selected for the side it doesn’t mean you’ve got your place and that’s it.

“We’ve upped the indoor and outdoor sessions in the pre-season and we’re looking foward to getting started again.

“When you’re playing, you just want a break from it but when you finally get that break, you think ‘I wish I was playing again’.”

Wiltshire were due to play their first friendly of the year last weekend with their annual trip to take on Dorset in Bournemouth but saw the clash fall foul of the rain.

However, the game wasn’t called off until Breet’s side had already made the trip down to the South Coast.

The county captain added: “We asked the question before we travelled but went down there to see the rain and come straight back again.

“It was quick getting down there but not so quick coming back up with all of the traffic.

“It’s a shame because we have a good relationship with Dorset and we’ve played them in a friendly every year for the years I’ve been here.”

Wiltshire side to face Berkshire in Trowbridge: Joe Breet (Westbury, captain), Tahir Afridi (Watford), Owen Alsop (South Wilts), Mukesh Bhatt (Stanmore), Tom Bowler (Corsham), Steve Bullen (Corsham, wicketkeeper), Toby Davies (Corsham), Henry Langford (Brockhampton), Jayden Levitt (Bromsgrove), Ashur Morrison (Corsham), Jack Mynott (South Wilts),Paul Robbins (Keynsham).