Your club needs young blood to run through its veins.

If you want first team superstars you need people in your club to support youngsters through the lower teams until they develop.

So often it’s left to the dedicated few ex-players who have moved into coaching. Rich clubs can provide decent facilities, but it’s time that is much more valuable than money.

The key to helping these youngsters is about support from everyone in the club: you cannot expect high performance without high levels of support.

That includes the current superstars of the 1^st XI.

That’s why this season at our club we introduced a mentoring system, whereby each of the emerging youth players were given senior 1^st teamers as their mentor.

Each youth player was matched to a player who complimented their playing style and role.

The purpose of these mentors was simply just to listen and be there for their youngster.

It gave the youngsters somebody within the club who they knew had been there and done that; someone to bounce ideas and get opinions off.

If the youngster found themselves in a dip in form, wanted advice or even had an issue at the club, it allowed for them to have a point of contact.

This supporting role is something that I’m sure many people in many clubs do without realising; but by formalising it, it allows the youth players to feel even more integral to the club, increase their loyalties and most importantly, make them a better cricketer in the future.