Oxfordshire head coach sings praises of Sussex partnership

Sussex Academy Director, Richard Halsall, chats with Oxfordshire Head Coach, Rupert Evans

Oxfordshire Cricket's Head Coach Rupert Evans has praised the player development partnership between the National County and Sussex Cricket that saw James Coles become the first product of the link-up to sign a professional contract with Sussex earlier this year. 

“Our formal relationship has worked absolutely fantastically well because not only do Oxfordshire get opportunities with Sussex we get fantastic support with our coaching,” Evans, who made more than 150 appearances for Oxfordshire between 1983 and 1998, explained.

“We work in partnership to run similar programmes to the ones that Sussex do. 

“The Emerging Players Programme is an Oxfordshire-Sussex one and Alan Duncan, who is a Level Four coach, is funded by Sussex to head up our EPP programme alongside Matt Barnes our Performance Manager. 

“Our own coaches also work on that programme but we also have support from Richard Halsall, Sussex’s Academy Director, who regularly attends our sessions,  and they also send specialist coaches like James Kirtley to our sessions. 

“Anything that is going to help the programme to run better and help our players develop, then Sussex are heavily involved in it. 

“We work closely to ensure that there is a seamless pathway all the way up and it’s good when you see guys go on because it means that we are doing our job properly. 

“If they go on to play first-class cricket or for England Under-19s it’s good for Oxfordshire cricket and we are pleased to see them go on to bigger and better things.” 

On Coles, Evans said, “Last year James started off with a hundred against Bucks and then went on and made his debut for Sussex as a 16-year-old.”

“Against Berkshire a couple of weeks ago he took five for six in seven overs [for Oxfordshire]. He looked very calm. He’s a very level-headed lad and he seems to take everything in his stride. 

“It will be interesting to see how, if he does have a bit of a difficult time, he reacts but I’m pretty confident that he will cope with it.”

The joint Sussex/Oxfordshire Academy was created in 2013. It is based at Magdalen College School, Oxford and led by Partnership Support Coach, Alan Duncan, who works closely with Halsall in developing young cricketers from the region. 

Harrison Ward is another graduate of the programme who went on to be part of the Sussex Academy at The 1st Central County Ground. The former England Under-19 international is now playing second team cricket for the county.