Pathway Player Progression

Buckinghamshire is one of the 20 ‘National County’ Cricket Boards in England & Wales. Meanwhile, there are 18 'Pro Counties' that have professional Men's team and 8 of these (rising to 10 by 2027) have Pro ‘Tier 1’ Women’s teams.

A key part of Bucks Cricket's role is to provide a structured pathway for our county's best young cricketers and we have a consistent track record of developing players that progress at the right time in the right way. This enables the players to retain their link to Bucks as their home county with Bucks Men's and Women's teams playing in National County Competitions alongside their Pro County Academy/Professional commitments.

Current professional players from Bucks who have come through the Bucks Cricket Pathway are:

Men: Alex Hales (Notts),Tom Helm (Middlesex),Saif Zaib (Northants),Dom Goodman (Gloucs),Raphael Weatherall (Northants),Aadi Sharma (Northants)
Women: Ella Claridge (Blaze),Bethan Miles (Surrey)

We have two formalised 'Pro County' partners:

Men/Boys: Northants CCC
Women/Girls: Hampshire CCC/Vipers

Bucks Cricket staff also work with other pro counties to provide the next step towards playing cricket professionally where it is right for the individual. This work is led by Bucks Cricket's Head of Performance, Jason Harrison and County Pathway Manager, James Savory.

Bucks Cricket's Pathway Performance Programmes link directly into our Pro County Academy partners:

Boys Emerging Players Programme (EPP, aged U15-18) and the Introductory Performance Programme (IPP – players aged U14-16)
Women & Girls Performance Programme (WGPP, aged U15 to Women’s team players) and the Introductory Performance Programme (IPP – players aged U13-15)

At County Age Group level, there is no material differences in the programmes provided by ‘National Counties’ and ‘Pro Counties’. For Boys (U14, U16, U18) and Girls (U15, U18) there are ECB competitions that involve all the counties.

Often it is more beneficial for a player to come through a National County pathway. This is because of the opportunity to play for 2 counties (1 Pro, 1 National County) when having signed on an academy or full-time contract – this enables them to get the ‘best-of-both’ fixture programmes. For example, in 2023, Saif Zaib (Northants CCC pro) played for Bucks Men in the National Counties T20 and Ella Claridge (The Blaze pro) played for Bucks Women in the Vipers Cup.

For players of high potential at U18 who have not progressed into the pro game, they will progress into Bucks Men’s and Women’s teams. Later developers can use performances for these teams to showcase their ability and still progress into professional county teams.

In 2025, Bucks Cricket have 4 boys currently signed on the Northants CCC Academy and 4 girls selected onto on the Hampshire Vipers regional EPP.