WORCESTERSHIRE CCC Academy product Mitchell Stanley has signed a new 12-month ‘rookie’ contract – and Bowling Coach Alan Richardson believes he has the potential to be “knocking on the door” for a first-team squad spot next season.
The 19-year-old paceman put pen to paper on his first contract last autumn, and the new deal will take him through until the end of the 2021 campaign.
Telford-born Stanley linked up with the Academy half-way through the 2017-2018 programme after making an impact on the Fast Bowling Programme that winter and was retained as part of the 2018-2019 intake.
He tasted Second Eleven cricket for the County at the end of the 2019 campaign before the impact of COVID-19 meant he was restricted to playing club cricket for Shifnal last summer.
But Stanley impressed Richardson during training, and he was included in the Rapids squad during the latter part of the Vitality Blast campaign.
Richardson said: “Mitchell is raw but now part of that exciting bowling group and should, as next season goes on, be pushing the other guys and knocking on the door.
“You watch him, and there are some real raw materials there. He is nice and tall, is getting more athletic and stronger the more time he spends with us.
“He has got that little bit of devil in his eye where you think ‘he’s got that fast bowler’s mentality.’”
Richardson added: “There is still a bit of work to be done and he’s been unlucky not to play more over the last couple of years because of injury – the nature of the beast when you are growing and the impact on your body when bowling pretty quickly as he does.
“But he showed enough in training to say if asked to play he would be able to do a job and he deserves his new contract.
“He performed brilliantly in training and whilst we would have liked him to play more cricket, it’s a nice stepping stone for him to kick on hopefully this winter and next season – fingers crossed – will be a full one and he will get some games under his belt.”