Inside the National Performance Squad program

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WICKETS specially tailored for both pace and spin, indoor and outdoor training facilities, and special motion analysis cameras to help you take your game to the next level.

You’d be hard pressed to find a better place for a net session than Brisbane’s National Cricket Centre, where 10 of the country’s best and brightest young cricketers have spent most of the winter with the National Performance Squad.

But make no mistake, this year’s NPS program – like every year’s – is far more than just a three-month net. Under the guidance of head coach Troy Cooley, and his assistants Chris Rogers and Ryan Harris, the program is focused on grooming cricketers to be more rounded players and better thinkers.

Alongside head coach Troy Cooley and fellow high performance coach Ryan Harris, Chris Rogers is helping groom the country’s best young cricketers in the NPS

With a combination of boot camps, book clubs and trips to India, the NPS program is designed to help those selected take the next big step in their cricket careers – whether that be the jump from the Futures League to the Sheffield Shield, or from domestic cricket to the international arena. And it’s got a proven track record.

Last year’s group featured Alex Carey, who has since gone on to represent Australia in one-day international and Twenty20 cricket. The year before Hilton Cartwright and Matt Renshaw both went from being NPS members to Test cricketers in less than six months. Fellow 2016 NPS alumni Mitch Swepson is hoping to win a baggy green of his own in October in the UAE.

“It’s not just hitting balls over and over again,” Rogers told foxsports.com.au. “It’s sitting down and getting them to think outside the box.

“We’ve done things like our annual boot camp, which isn’t just about destroying them. It’s getting them to understand how to think about more than themselves and as a team.”