Over the past couple of seasons our second team have boasted one of the youngest line-ups at the top end of the league and this season we will have one of the youngest captains with 22-year-old Rahil Thapar taking charge.

After leading the 2s to promotion then last season consolidating their spot in Division 2 A and earning the title of the league's highest-placed second team, Matt Rose is stepping down as skipper with Rahil taking the reins of a side with an exciting blend of youth and experience.

And he is a flag bearer for the club's youth policy, having started playing competitive cricket for Radlett at under-8 and gone all the way through to representing the first team.
Rahil said: "I think I've been coming here for about 16 years now and a lot of the other boys have come up from the ranks too. A lot of the players at the highest levels of the club have come up through the youth set up.

"Matt told me he was stepping down and I just thought this club has given me a lot of opportunities over the years and it was probably time to give something back. It's exciting because the second team has a blend of a lot of talented 16-19 year olds but also older lads who have been playing senior cricket for 10-plus years, then I'm in the middle.

"I'm hoping to shape it in my own way, I've got a good relationship with the younger lads I've seen growing up, and also the older players who I've been playing with for the last 5 years so I'm probably in a good position to take over this sort of role. It helps that I'm taking over a team that's very high performing and very successful, there's a lot of talent there."
He may be a young captain, but Rahil hasn't been completely swept away by the Bazball approach.

He said: "I'm quite pragmatic, it can all change depending on who is playing and what the conditions are, but if we bat 50 over and score over 200 we can defend that so from the batting point of view I want them to be selfish and hang around at the crease because I think if we play the whole 100 overs of cricket we'll win. I want to play the long game and show some patience.

"In terms of bowling it's easier to explain, it's about our seamers hitting their lines and lengths and we're lucky to have 4 or 5 talented seamers, and with the spinners it's the same.

"A lot of our bowlers are quite young and as a young bowler myself I've learnt you may not get it right in the first or second over but it's about being patient and nurturing them rather than taking them off straight away. I've been hit for quite a few sixes so I know what it's like!

"The thing I like about the second team is that a lot of the young lads are really keen to stamp their mark on Radlett's adult teams and a lot of them have the ambition to play first team and above so I hope I can give them the opportunities to perform and knock on Fraser's door.

"With a young team they may be inexperienced but it also brings much more dynamism in the field. We need to have people who are willing to throw themselves around and put their bodies on the line and save us 15-20 runs a game.

"I'm very excited for it, we're lucky we've got a strong set up and good support from within the club and I'm excited to be part of it and see how it goes, if we can see a clear path and a clear direction this season I think that's more important than the overall outcome.

"We're playing against other clubs' first teams where they are mainly grown men with lots of experience and there are a lot of challenges to overcome but that makes you a better cricketer."