SOME of the brightest cricketing prospects in the county have spent the winter training hard with Worcestershire's academy and now they have their sights set on making the grade and breaking into the first team.

New Road director of cricket Steve Rhodes cast his eye over some of the youngsters on Saturday at the weekly training session at Prince Henry's School in Evesham and he believes the County's future looks bright.

He said: "The young lads are coming through well and they are now training three times a week as well as doing several one-to-one sessions.

"They are not officially under contract until March 21, when the squad reports back for pre-season training, but there are still plenty of them coming along to practice.

"Damian D'Oliveira, who it the director of the academy, has been doing a sterling job and things are looking good for the future at Worcestershire.

"Some of the youngsters to come through the academy have already broken into the first team and many others are showing good signs for the future. It is all testament to the work Damian has been doing with the academy."

The Worcestershire staff have spent a considerable amount of time in the nets working with Richard Jones, the County's England under-19 bowler who has un-fortunately been ruled out of the forthcoming under-19 World Cup through in-jury.

Rhodes added: "Richard was desperately unlucky to miss out on the England under-19 squad and it was a bitter blow for him.

"He was building up to a stress fracture, which would have put him out of the game for a long time, so we have been working on re-modelling his action, and have overcome the problem now.

"He has also been working with the springboard to get a feel for what his back foot landing should be like and he is looking good."