NIC Maddinson is one of six NSW cricketers selected in the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) squad to play the annual Emerging Players Tournament which starts in Brisbane this week.
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With Sean Abbott and Nathan Brain, he is one of three underage state players in the squad with RTA SpeedBlitz Blues squad members Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques and Mitchell Starc.
The AIS will play against similar squads from India, South Africa and New Zealand in a combination of Twenty20 and 50 over matches from Friday through until August 20.
This year, the AIS squad will be jointly led by COE batting coach David Fitzgerald and spin bowling coach John Davison, under the watchful eye of former Australian captain Greg Chappell.
“The Emerging Players Tournament is a terrific way for our scholars to end their program and be part of some extremely competitive cricket in the lead-up to the Australian interstate season,” Fitzgerald said.
“This year we’re lucky to have quite a large complement of players available for selection during the tournament, including some with international experience and they will play a big role in continuing the development of the younger squad members.
“To have players of the calibre of Callum Ferguson and Moises Henriques available to work with our younger squad members will be invaluable.
“Under the guidance of Chappell, the AIS Scholarship Program has taken a much more game-focused plan and the scholars have been lucky enough to have some good preparation recently, playing against the touring Mumbai Indians squad.
“That gave them a good challenge and we’re looking forward to seeing what they learnt from that and some further improvement in the Emerging Players Tournament starting in a couple of weeks,” Fitzgerald added.
Maddinson (18), who started his career in the Shoalhaven, will look to build on an outstanding 2009-10 season when he was a member of Australia’s winning team at the ICC World Under 19 Cup.
He scored his first century for Australia – 133 against Sri Lanka under 19s - and was the player of the year in the NSW 19s who won the national championship, with a highest score of 147 against Victoria.
He also batted consistently with the NSW Second XI in the Futures League.
Prior to departure to Brisbane for the off-season training, he was awarded a Cricket NSW rookie contract for 2010-11.
The Emerging Players Tournament was first held in 2005 with Karnataka, a state team from India taking the honours.
South Africa took out the series in 2006 and 2007 with New Zealand victorious in 2008 and India claiming the title in 2009.
In fact the only country not to have won the series yet is Australia!
After playing a practice (50-over) match against New Zealand on Friday, August 6, AIS will open its campaign on the Saturday with a Twenty20 clash with India.
Since its inception the tournament has been used as a stepping stone for many current international players, including Adam Voges, Ben Hilfenhaus, Luke Ronchi, Shaun Marsh, Callum Ferguson (Australia), Jacob Oram, Shane Bond, Hamish Marshall, Mark Gillespie, Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton, Michael Papps (New Zealand), Neil McKenzie, Robin Peterson (South Africa) and Robin Uthappa (India).
NSW umpire Michael Kumatat has been named on a five-man Emerging Umpires Panel for the tournament where he will have the opportunity to work alongside National Panel umpires Bob Parry and Bruce Oxenford.
Teams
Australian Institute of Sport: Peter George, Josh Hazlewood, Nicholas Buchanan, Moises Henriques, Luke Feldman, Sean Abbott, Ben Dunk, James Faulkner, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Luke Pomersbach, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ryan Carters, Glenn Maxwell, Alister McDermott, Nathan Brain, Jason Floros, Nic Maddinson, Callum Ferguson, Gursewak Singh*, Malhotra Sahib*.
*MRF Pace Foundation.
India: Parthiv Patel (c), Cheteshwar Pujara (vc), Shikar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Sourav Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Naman Ojha, Abhinav Mukund, Umesh Yadev, Jaydev Unadkat, Vinay Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaskaran Singh, Piyush Chawla, Ravichandran Ashwin.
New Zealand: Neil Broom, Jamie How, Bradley Scott, Shanan Stewart, Brent Arnel, Robert Young, Brendon Diamanti, Michael Bates, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim McIntosh, Neil Wagner, Luke Woodcock, Dean Brownlie, Nick Beard, Hamish Bennett.
South Africa: Davy Jacobs (c), Pierre Joubert, Ryan Bailey, Pumelela Matshikwe, CJ DeVilliers, Daryn Smit, Dane Wilas, Basheer Walters, Reeza Hendricks, Jon-Jon Smuts, Farhaan Berhardien, Colin Ingram, Vaughn Van Jaarsveld, Aaron Phangiso, Craig Alexander.
