When the England Under 19 squad to tour South Africa was announced earlier this week it was a proud day for Hampshire Cricket as three of the sixteen young cricketers selected are players developed through the Hampshire Academy. Liam Dawson, Hamza Riazuddin and Chris Wood will spend next January in South Africa, playing a total of five one-day internationals, two Twenty20 games and a Test match.

Academy Director Tony Middleton was understandably delighted. "To have three guys in the squad shows what a good crop of youngsters we have at the moment" he told me. "Liam's one of England's most experienced Under 19 players now, and Hamza was selected over the summer too. But it's great that Chris has been selected because he hasn't previously been in the England set up - he deserves it because he's worked so hard over the last couple of years."

While Liam Dawson’s inclusion in the squad was a racing certainty, bowler Chris Wood’s selection was more of a surprise – even to him. “I had a phone call from Tony Middleton about a week ago, saying that Andy Pick (the England Under 19 Head Coach) wanted to see me bowl” he told me. “Then I heard nothing, but yesterday a friend told me they’d seen the squad on the ECB website and my name was there – I didn’t believe them at first!”

Chris is a student at Alton College where he is studying for a BTEC National Diploma in Sport. In common with the other Academy players he will restart his training in earnest in November and to say he is looking forward to joining the England side is an understatement.

“We are hoping Chris will continue his development into one of our up and coming seam bowlers” said Andy Pick. "We're looking for Liam Dawson to play a leading role on this tour after a very successful summer this year. Similarly we're expecting Hamza Riazuddin to take a lead in the one-day internationals following his experience this summer in the Hampshire First XI, which will prove invaluable.”

At the time of writing, Hamza was en route to Perth where he is spending the next few months, however I did catch up with Liam Dawson, currently chilling out at home following a hectic few months of cricket. He certainly wasn’t taking his selection for the England squad as a given. “It’s a real good honour” he told me. “To play for your country’s always good.”

The complete England Under 19 squad is as follows:
Scott Borthwick (Durham)
Nathan Buck (Leicestershire)
James Burke (Somerset)
Joshua Cobb (Leicestershire)
Liam Dawson (Hampshire)
James Harris (Glamorgan)
Jaik Mickleburgh (Essex)
Sam Northeast (Kent)
Thomas Poynton (Derbyshire)
Daniel Redfern (Derbyshire)
Hamza Riazuddin (Hampshire)
Atif Sheik (Derbyshire)
Ben Stokes (Durham)
James Taylor (Leicestershire)
Adam Wheater (Essex)
Chris Wood (Hampshire)

Hamza Riazuddin bowling against Sussex

Liam Dawson won Most Promising Uncapped Player of the Year Award

 

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