.png)
WA Cricket announced their squad for the new season yesterday, with an expanded group of 31 players looking to defend the Sheffield Shield and One Day Cup titles.
WA Cricket high performance manager Kade Harvey is pleased to be keeping a familiar squad together for the 2023-24 summer.
Harvey told Sports Breakfast the state’s depth of talent meant there was no need to recruit players from other states.
“It’s nice to keep the group settled, they’re playing well and [we] look forward to building on that,” Harvey said.
“It’s really pleasing. Obviously we lost Shaun to retirement and unfortunately we didn’t contract David Moody, but apart from that, we were able to extend some players.
“There was just a really strong sense that no one wanted to go anywhere, everyone was really comfortable with where they’re at and how they’re going about it.”
The two new additions to the list are young fast bowlers Mahli Beardman and Josh Vernon, with Harvey excited by their potential.
“They’ve both got similar stories in that they’ve come from the far North and they both bowl fast,” he said.
“I think Mahli was the one who was identified, he moved to Perth a little bit sooner, he’s been at Aquinas College. He’s got a bit of Jhye Richardson about him.
“Josh is probably a little bit more of a later bloomer but he’s a really nice kid, he’s playing out at Midland, he’s moved down from Midland, he’s studying at UWA, and I think I surprised him a little bit with the call a couple of weeks ago.”
An expansion in the number of Cricket Australia contracts available under the new memorandum of understanding saw Jhye Richardson and Lance Morris pick up national deals alongside Cameron Green, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Agar, and Josh Inglis.
IMAGE: FILE