England women to play U19 tri-series alongside Sri Lanka, Australia; Chris Guest named head coach

London, Dec 22 (IANS) England women’s U19 team will be touring Sri Lanka to take on the hosts and Australia in a tri-series happening from March to April. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) also said that both T20 and 50-over formats will be played across the tour.

It added that Chris Guest, currently Regional Head Coach at The Blaze and Assistant Coach at Northern Superchargers in The Women’s Hundred, will be the head coach of the England women’s U19 team, with more details including dates and locations to be announced in due course.

Guest will be in-charge of a preparation group attending a series of winter camps in Loughborough in January before a reduced tour squad is announced at a later date. In the preparation group are a number of players that attended the inaugural ICC Women’s U19 World Cup in South Africa in January 2023, where England finished as runners-up, and who are still age-eligible.

They are joined by some players who are U19 for the 2024 season only and some players who will also remain as U19 players for the second Women’s U19 World Cup in Malaysia in January 2025 and therefore will be in contention for that programme later in 2024.

Jemima Spence was originally selected in the 20-player preparation phase player group but has had to withdraw due to injury and Maddie Ward has been named as her replacement. “We are delighted to announce the preparation phase player-group and our new coaching team in what will be an exciting start to 2024 for the England Women’s U19 programme.”

“The Tri Series in Sri Lanka will see the group gain valuable development experience of playing in the subcontinent against challenging opposition and we’re really interested to see what learning players and staff can make from the opportunity,” said Richard Bedbrook, England Women Head of Performance Pathways.

Supporting Guest as assistant coaches will be Courtney Winfield-Hill, former Senior Regional Talent Manager at Northern Diamonds & Assistant Coach at Trent Rockets in the Hundred and most recently with Brisbane Heat in the Women’s Big Bash League, as well as Darren Franklin, Senior Regional Talent Manager for Central Sparks.

“This coaching team provides a great opportunity to utilise learning and experiences from our first England Women U19 World Cup programme to date with both Chris and Darren having been involved in the leadership and delivery of that.”

“Courtney is a great addition and brings a wealth of experience that we’re delighted can impact on a new EW U19 environment to be created,” added Bedbrook.

England Women U19 preparation group: Meg Austin, Summer Carrington, Tilly Corteen-Coleman, Jodi Grewcock, Josie Groves, Lola Harris, Trudy Johnson, Katie Jones, Charlotte Lambert, Ava Lee, Abi Norgrove, Charis Pavely, Davina Perrin, Sophia Smale, Alexa Stonehouse, Charlotte Stubbs, Amu Surenkumar, Mary Taylor, Erin Thomas and Maddie Ward

–IANS

nr/bc