By JARROD POTTER
CHARGING in all cricket season at Casey Fields has paid off for Nathan Lambden, who has been selected for Cricket Victoria’s Futures League Academy – Winter Squad.
The state’s high performance coaches have put the 23-year-old paceman, from Cranbourne, into the squad after an outstanding first Victorian Premer Cricket season with Casey-South Melbourne.
Lambden led a new-look, new-ball attack for the Swans this summer, after switching from Dandenong, and finished up with 29 wickets for 2015/16 at 20.7.
He was also called up to the Victorian Premier Cricket All Stars side, which took on the Melbourne Stars in an exhibition Twenty20 match at Casey Fields in December.
Lambden was thrilled to get his chance to work on his game at the elite level over the off-season and hoped he could impress enough to get a call up to the next level in the Bushrangers’ pathway.
“It was pretty good – I got an email last week about it and was pretty stoked and pretty surprised to be honest as there’s a lot of good cricketers out there,” Lambden said. “I had a pretty good year – there’s still a few things I need to work on and improve on and I’ve worked extremely hard to get to where I have now.
“To take the next step I’ve got to start working even harder now to prove to selectors and play a step higher this season coming, but there’s still a long way to go.”
The squad will train together at the MCG once a week on a Thursday throughout winter under the tutelage of Victoria’s high performance coaches.
Lambden and the other selected squad members will complete around 15 sessions – a combination of skills, strength and conditioning and performance management sessions.
The Swans’ spearhead wanted to make his mark on the training sessions and put his hand up for higher opportunities.
“The experience of training with the best cricketers, having the best coaches with us – obviously lots to improve and there’s things I need to improve on,” Lambden said.
“So hopefully walk away with the experience and knowledge and talking to some of the best cricketers going around and learning a few tricks off those blokes.
“I think I need to work on my consistency the most – I wasn’t too happy with the consistency last year.
“I’d bowl three or four good balls then one would get away for four and stuff like that – just some technical things I want to improve.”
Pearcedale’s Ben Ashkenazi – who plays for Frankston-Peninsula Heat – has also been selected in the academy.
The program commences on Thursday 9 June.
