Voges excited by young Aussie talent

Former Australia batsman Adam Voges has cast his way over the country’s next wave of talent and believes there is plenty to be excited by.

Voges, who represented Australia on 58 occasions across all three formats, has been with the Western Australia Under 19s team in a mentoring role throughout the 2017-18 Under 19 National Championships in Tasmania, helping WA chase back-to-back titles.

“I’ve been part of the setup and the program with the guys, they’ve been going for about 16 weeks in the lead-up to this tournament,” Voges told ABC Northern Tasmania.

“Just helping them along the way with the training program, working with the leaders and the batters, and just helping them prepare for this tournament.

“We’ve got some exciting prospects - Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Brad Hope, Matthew Spoors - just to name a couple.

“(They’re) all good young players who are hopefully going to be the future of Western Australian and Australian cricket down the track.”

Voges, who will continue his decorated career with the Perth Scorchers in KFC BBL07, played alongside Green at first-class level last summer.

The teenage allrounder made a remarkable entrance to Sheffield Shield cricket in February – becoming the youngest player to take a Shield five-wicket haul on debut when he captured 5-24 against Tasmania – and Voges believes he’s a young player with a big future.

“We debuted Cam down here in Hobart last season during the Sheffield Shield. (It’s) always nice for a 17-year-old debutant to come in, he’s actually 20 years younger than me, so he made me feel pretty old when he came in,” Voges said.

“He got five wickets on debut, bowled beautifully. Unfortunately he’s nursing a bit of a back injury so he’s only playing this tournament as a batter… but he hits a long ball, is an incredibly exciting prospect in terms of Australian cricket.

“I think if he can stay injury-free he’s going to play a lot of high-honours cricket.

“He can turn into a genuine allrounder. His batting’s as good as his bowling at this stage, so that’s the really exciting part.”

The 38-year-old has been working alongside Alcohol.Think Again Western Warriors and Perth Scorchers assistant coach Stewart Walters, who guided Western Australia to last year’s Under 19 National Championships title.

“This is probably my first crack at it (coaching),” Voges said.

“I’m enjoying it so far, it’s nice to be able to help these guys at this level. I’ve had some really good coaches…. Justin Langer, Darren Lehmann, a few of my WA coaches in Tom Moody and those sort of guys.

“You take little bits and pieces out of what they do and try to mould your own sort of methods around your coaching style.

“I still remember back when I was playing under-19s cricket, albeit a little while ago. It’s a great time these couple of weeks, and hopefully the guys learn a lot out of it.”

Western Australia finished fourth in their National Championships pool after the five round matches, and will face ACT/NSW Country in a do-or-die quarter final in Hobart on Tuesday - a rematch of last year’s finalists.

The tournament final will be played on December 15 at Blundstone Arena and will be live-streamed via www.cricket.com.au and on the CA Live app.