Challengers: Interview With Coach, Tom Lambert

Head Coach Tom Lambert has hailed the achievements of the National Counties Cricket Association Challengers in the newly-formed representative side’s successful debut season.

The Challengers, the brainchild of NCCA Operations Director Richard Logan, were created during the winter to help showcase some of the many talented players playing National Counties cricket and give them the opportunity to test themselves against first-class opposition.

The Challengers have just completed a six-match programme across all three formats which included victories over Leicestershire in the first of three T20 matches and Hampshire in a 50-overs match ahead of the Metro Bank One Day Cup.

The Challengers were also competitive in two more T20 matches against Leicestershire at Grace Road and another against Sussex in front of a 2,000 crowd under the Hove floodlights before ending the season on top in a three-day game against Zimbabwe Emerging – who included five Test players – before rain wiped out most of the last day.

“It has been a brilliant summer,” said Lambert, who is also Head Coach of Berkshire, who have enjoyed an unprecedented period of success in National Counties cricket for almost ten years.

“We only started out in January on the mission and we had a couple of aims. One of the big ones was to create a team environment and a culture.

“We weren’t particularly results-orientated. We weren’t here to get better individually but to win as a team eventually, although we knew that might take some time.

“It was about creating a brand and a culture about what we did. We have seen that seen in every day’s cricket we have played. The lads are very close now.

“I’m very happy with that and I am happy that we have got a squad that know what they are trying to do and they understand the process of what we are trying to achieve. I am confident that they are going to be successful moving forward.

“I genuinely believe that we can win games now which is a massive step forward. But the most important thing for me is that we now have got a team and a group of players who also believe that. That’s the biggest positive.

“You couldn’t ask for much more from this summer. We were confident that we could win games, but we had to prove to other people that we could do that.

“We didn’t play budget sides, we didn’t play Second XIs, we played full first teams so to beat Leicestershire and to beat Hampshire and to be in a position to beat Zimbabwe – only one team going to win that game - was very pleasing.

“In the games we lost against Sussex and Leicestershire we were very, very competitive with very little resources and time on task. Imagine what we could do if had those. So it’s been a brilliant summer and I have really enjoyed it.”

In addition to competing with and beating first-class opposition, two players who began the season with the Challengers – Oxfordshire left-arm spinner Tom Hinley and Berkshire seamer Tommy Sturgess – have secured contracts with Worcestershire for the Metro Bank Cup.

“I always say in any successful teams you have to get wins in early to believe in yourself and you have got to get players signed early for those coming next to believe in the process,” Lambert said.

“To have two players who are National Counties lads, who have come out to the European T10 Championship in Spain with us and who have done their time in National Counties cricket and got signed by a first-class county is brilliant.

“You only need examples to make others believe. That is much a success story as the wins we have had. “

All of which might suggest that the Challengers have exceeded the expectations that they first had when Logan first came up with the concept.

But Lambert, a passionate advocate for National Counties cricket and the talent on display on a weekly basis across the 20 counties, disagrees.

“You will never exceed expectations with me because I am generally a very positive guy. I don’t say things for effect,” he said.

“I have grown up in National Counties cricket. I’ve played in it since I was 16 with Berkshire but I came through the pathway with Berkshire from the age of nine.

“I think National Counties cricket is brilliant. It’s all I know and I have always been an advocate of it over Second XI cricket.

“I have always thought there are good players out there and there is an age-related thing where people get forgotten. I was one those people, so I guess so there is a bit of a chip on my shoulder that I was forgotten about.

“So, I have got a passion to help get these guys to where I couldn’t get and to where I think they can get to. It will be proved in the next couple of years whether I am right.

“But we’ve not done anything yet. We’ve won a few games of cricket and they are friendly games of cricket. Perhaps the opposition’s motivation wasn’t as high as it need to be. We musn’t think we have cracked anything yet because we haven’t.

“But what we have done is given a group of players, coaches and Richard Logan the confidence that what he thought might work in a very short period of time and with a small sample size has been very good so far.”