TWO young cricketers have been given a golden chance to develop their talents thanks to new funding from the Gloucestershire Cricket Trust.

The GCT charity have donated £5,700 to support the Gloucestershire Cricket Board’s Girls Emerging Players Programme and an expanded performance programme for boys.

As a result of the GCT grant ten of the county’s most talented girls aged 11-16 are currently taking part in weekly two-hour coaching sessions at Gloucester Academy where they are developing their technical skills, tactical awareness and doing basic strength and conditioning training.

Natasha Wraith, who last year attended an England Talent Detection Day, and Emily Wilkins, both from Frenchay, have been included on the new programme and will benefit from the coaching sessions in their cricketing ambitions.

The Girls EPP – which is in its second year – is led by GCB clubs and programmes officer Lisa Pagett who also coaches the Gloucestershire Under 15 and Senior Women’s squads. The Development EPP was run by GCB head of performance Tim Hancock.

Pagett said the Girls’ EPP was an exciting development for women and girls cricket in the county.

She said: “It is a great to be able to provide more opportunities for the talented girls we have in our set-up. The programme allows us to spend more time developing them as individuals which will in turn help raise the standard of women and girls cricket in Gloucestershire. There is no funding from the ECB for this so the donation from the GCT is invaluable.”

And Gloucestershire has already begun to reap the benefits of the programme with a number of the players involved having season impressive seasons in 2014. The Girls Under 15 team – which included seven girls involved in the EPP – finished runners-up in the ECB County Championship.

A number of girls were also selected for older age groups, including allrounder Alice Hill who made her debut for the Senior Women aged 14. Danielle Gibson –who attends both the girls and boys EPP – also made her senior debut in 2014 and has also been selected for the England U15 development programme.

Pagett added: “The opportunity for them to work in a professional environment with the best players in the county has been hugely beneficial in helping accelerate their development. It has also allowed us to give them more one-to-one support which has helped all of the players make significant improvement over the winter.”

The Girls EPP also received coaching and guidance from England Ashes winners Heather Knight and Lydia Greenway when they visited Gloucestershire in their role as Chance To Shine Coaching Ambassadors.