CLIFTONVILLE ACADEMY
- Captain: Matthew McCord
- Players In : CP Klijnhans (Overseas Professional), Dave O’Sullivan
- Players Out: Abhishek Raut, Jared Wilson, Varun Chopra, Francis Collins, Hayden Melly
- Young players to Watch: Henry Wylie, Alfie Wylie and Hari Saneesh
It's been a busy close season at Cliftonville Academy with no fewer than five players leaving and just two coming in.
That will undoubtedly lead to a drop in depth and quality, but skipper Matthew McCord is still optimistic ahead of the new season.
"We will be hoping the summer is kinder than the winter has been. It's been a tough winter for exits all for a variety of reasons with Jared and Varun both returning back to the north west for reasons outside of cricket and a change in Passport and Pro.
"That has been compounded somewhat in the last couple of weeks with injuries to John Glass and Dave O'Sullivan who have been wintering in NZ and Australia. John will probably miss the first couple of months altogether and Dave will play as a bat only at the start of the season and hope to be bowling within a few weeks.
"After having two of the best seasons in the clubs short history competing at the top end of the league in 2024 and making our first Cup final last season I certainly think this year will be about rebuilding and regrouping.
"With it being a ‘free season’ the Club has made push this winter to invest in facilities at the Castle with a new robot mower purchased by the club and sight screens, scoreboard and covers from the Olympic Legacy Fund. The club would like to put on public record their thanks to Jonny Waite and Callum Atkinson from the NCU for their help with this.
"It’s going to be a real test this year, I expect it to be quite similar to our first year up where we only really compete with the teams around the bottom and we will be in for a few tough weeks undoubtedly when we come up against the teams at the top.
"A lot of the squad will be the guys who got us promoted to the PL in 2021 and played in 2022 along with a strong group of 16-19s the clubs junior section have developed over the last number of years. A lot of these guys got a taste for the premier league last year with some success.
"Henry Wylie getting the prize scalp of Faiz Fazal as his first PL wicket a real highlight. His twin brother Alfie is a talented left arm seamer and also keeper, we plan to keep nurturing both with him sharing the gloves with Adam Kelso and bowling in the other weeks. Other youngsters including Hari Saneesh, Aadi Maini, Keshav Raghuram have all seen several PL games in the last few seasons and will likely be even more involved in this campaign.
"It’ll be exciting to see a lot of them get regular opportunities and hope a few can begin long regular careers in the 1st XI this season.
"Personally delighted with an Irish cricket bucket list trip to Donemana for the Irish Senior Cup this year too. It will be something to look forward to in May as I know a lot of the guys are too."
