ECB & ICEC Recommendations — a subtle “re-interpretation”?

A revealing read (behind The Cricketer’s paywall).

How will ICEC affect age group cricket? County coaches speak out | ✍️ @oscarress.bsky.social

— The Cricketer (@thecricketer.com) 2025-02-07T09:42:19.953Z

Taken alongside the ECB’s Talent Pathway Action Plan, October 2024, it shows how the ECB have re-interpreted one ICEC recommendation and, apparently, disregarded another.

ICEC Recommendation 40 — “…selection for representative, inter-county Cricket should begin at the U14 level and not before…” — seems to have been re-interpreted to the point where it can almost be ignored.

“…we are looking to introduce an Early Engagement Programme at U10-U12 before the start of CAG at U13…”

Making Cricket a More Inclusive Sport, ECB; September 2024

But according to the article in The Cricketer, it would appear that Counties plan to run larger (though still selective) programmes at U10-U12 with their CAG coaches, before then selecting competitive squads at U13, not U14.

ICEC Recommendation 41 assumed that U10-U13 CAG coaches could be re-assigned to other early “Pathway” roles, not retained in an extended “non-competitive” (but still selective) CAG setting.

But with CAG selection starting at U13, not U14 as envisioned in ICEC Recommendation 40, these coaches will be less available to support the Early Engagement Programme, per ICEC Recommendation 41.

The full implementation of the early engagement plan & CAG pathway is still to be announced — as of February 2025: “A workstream of developing early engagement programmes for November 2025 is…underway to sit before a delayed CAG selection process”.

Some Counties have already started recruitment for Early Engagement Programme officers.

But is ICEC Recommendation 41 one of those which the ECB feel themselves unable to deliver on?