Yorkshire Cricket Board

The appointment of 2 Elite Junior Cricket Coordinators has been announced as part of the re-structuring of elite junior cricket in Yorkshire.

Jim Love, former Yorkshire and England International, has been appointed Coordinator for the U15s,U14s and U13s County Age sides with Keith Dickson, former Vice-Chairman of YSCA & Yorkshire U13s team manager, taking up the role for the U12, U11s and U10s.

In announcing the appointments, Andrew Watson (YCB Executive Director) said ‘’Jim and Keith bring a wealth of knowledge, experience and credibility to these new roles. They are important appointments in taking forward the exciting changes we are introducing within elite junior cricket in Yorkshire covering representative summer fixtures and winter training for elite junior players.’’

The changes will see the Yorkshire County Age Group junior teams from U10s to U15s being directly run under the banner of Yorkshire Cricket, with the first tasks for Jim and Keith being the appointment of the managers and coaches who will work with the County Age group sides in the 2017 season.

The posts are voluntary positions and their remit includes ensuring that junior elite players have access to the best coaches and development opportunities from a young age. Keith and Jim were appointed from a recruitment process where they were the strongest candidates.

Jim Love commented ‘’this will be a challenging role which presents a unique opportunity to link the winter programmes and summer representative fixture programmes to secure the best development opportunities for elite junior players.’’

Keith Dickson added ‘’ The talent pool in Yorkshire is immense and our challenge is to foster this appropriately to help produce the next Joe Root, Adil Rashid and Jonny Bairstow for Yorkshire and England. We are looking forward to the challenge including the opportunity to work with the many talented coaches who are currently doing fantastic work with junior cricketers across Yorkshire. ’’

For further information about these changes & appointments please contact Graham Purdy on 0113 2033 668.

More about Jim and Keith
Keith Dickson – as well as scoring more than 25,000 runs in local league cricket for a variety of clubs, Keith has spent almost 30 years supporting Junior Representative cricket in Yorkshire. This includes 25 years as Chairman of Leeds Schools Cricket Association, coaching and managing all the junior age groups and 22 years as Yorkshire U13s team manager. Keith is a teacher by profession.

Jim Love – following his successful professional career with Yorkshire and England, Jim’s cricket CV includes Director of Cricket for the Scotland national side, work with Chance to Shine developing access to cricket through schools; and Coaching on all levels of Yorkshire's Pathways Programme. Jim is also cricket coach at Ampleforth College and York CC.