With the indoor season concluding last week and Cheltenham losing the final the club set itself for what hopes to be a promising season. Under the eye of Luke Sellers, the club is just starting to prepare the squad and make sure they ‘’hit the ground running ‘’ this April.
‘’We aim to always to try and get the game together and create a kind of spirit camaraderie and teamwork ‘’ sellers mentioned during a recent update on the club’s plans. Seller hopes to divert away from the mid preparation fatigue that goes on for over 12 weeks.
This season the club has seen a major expansion. They will field five teams for the first time ever .The growth comes after three consecutive promotions for the third team whilst the second team has excelled two years running .’’I think it’s a sign of the progress the clubs made over the last few years’’ marked Sellers ,’’Hopefully words got round that Cheltenham is a good club where we look to develop players but were also pretty friendly and social ‘’.
The Cheltenham coach has clear objectives. Sellers is looking for a return to premier 1 for the first team but realises the difficulty of the league in which only first position moves up. . On the other had the third team faces a possibility of a fourth consecutive promotion, Sellers believes thiol is due to the range of youth players mixing in with the experienced players.
The challenge maybe a bit harder for the second xi who are in a whole new level and just one league below the first team.. However, they are competing in a league that has other clubs top sides and Cheltenham will be the only second team side in the division. Sellers believes there will be a ‘’period of acclimatization ‘’ but hopes for a mid-table finish.
Beyond the field of play the club looks to keep its name as developmental hub. The new fifth team and the other teams will keep their eyes on ‘’fun social cricket ‘’ hoping to bring on the next generation.
However, the legacy and the name of the club sits within its fourth and fifth teams. These two teams are the ones that tend to focus on the ‘’fun social cricket ‘’and serve up to be the engine room for the next generation of players coming through the ranks.
Luke is balancing the competitive edge level with the supportive environment that the club has by ensuring that the chain of talent coming through continues to grow and that the standards grow too.
With those players coming through the ranks the plan is to eventually get them all the way into the first team. But it’s quite clear that as April comes Cheltenham are growing and are looking for success.
