Talent Cricket Young Player of the Year: Dan Stevens

Hard work has gone a long way for this talented 15-year-old

Dan Stevens has been named Talent Cricket's Young Player of the Year after a stellar summer.

The 15-year-old, who won the monthly award in August, has scored three centuries for Greenmount's 2nd XI in 2019. Dan's father, John, believes his success is a result of the hard work he puts in each summer.

"He really does work hard at his game," says John. "He attends an academy called The Cricket Asylum and has a really good coach there called Matthew Dawson, who use to play for Yorkshire's 2nd XI and Cheshire.

"The second thing is he went out to Barbados and worked with Franklyn Stephenson [the former Notts allrounder] for a week at his academy. Funnily enough, Franklin came over to watch Dan play just after he received the award [in August] and he got a duck – the only one he received all season!

"And then the rest of the time he's mithering me to go throw balls at him in the nets.”

^{Dan worked with Franklyn Stephenson in Barbados}

Despite picking up the illustrious award, Dan won’t be getting carried away. His focus remains breaking into Greenmount's 1st XI and staying in the Lancashire fold.

"He'd like to get picked for Greenmount's 1st XI. He's been on the fringes this year – playing one game and a couple of T20s – and he's played all the games for the 2nd XI. That would be his natural step up, club wise.

"In terms of county, he's not a standout player in the Lancashire's U15s team; he only broke into the performance squad this year. If he could stay in the Lancashire system, he'd be pleased with that.

"We know George Bell, who won last month's award [Summer issue]. He's in the academy at Lancashire and he's a much more advanced player than Dan is, so Dan has a lot of work to do to get to the same level.

"We're under no illusions, cricket is Dan's passion. But our ethos is to stay grounded, realistic, be the best you can be and work as hard as possible."

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