WORCESTERSHIRE have a host of under-15 and under-17 players in contention to be selected for the English Schools Cricket Association Bunbury Cricket Festival and Super-Fours respectively.

The Bunbury Festival is being held at Radley College, Oxfordshire, from July 17 to 22 and will showcase the skills of 56 of the most talented England Under-15 players in the country.

David English's annual Bunbury Festival has helped discover and nurture many talented cricketers.

More than 300 Bunburys have gone onto play first class cricket - and over 60 have represented England according to the Bunburycricket.com website.

Four Worcestershire CCC players were selected for the Bunburys last year in Jack Haynes, Musharraf Shazad, Ewan Wilcox and Ryan Wheldon.

Haynes is a member of the 2015-2016 academy intake with the other three all part of the elite player group - the tier of players just below the full academy.

The Worcestershire players in contention to be selected for the Bunburys Midlands side in 2016 are Jack Haynes, Zain Hassan, Matthew Davis, Xavi Clarke and Daniel Hughes.

The Super-Fours held from August 23 to 27 at the National Performance Centre in Loughborough is in effect the Under-17s equivalent of the Bunburys.

It will offer the cream of the players in that age group the opportunity to show off their skills in front of watching England development programme coaches and selectors.

Last year the Worcestershire sextet of Josh Haynes, Josh Dell, Nick Hammond, Ben Twohig, who skippered the team, Josh Tongue and Zen Malik helped the Midlands to win the tournament at Loughborough.

Josh Haynes plus fellow academy players George Newton, Jack Charters and Dylan Pennington are expected to be in contention for selection.

Those chosen will participate in a round-robin 50-over competition involving the Midlands, London and East, North and South West.

Worcestershire academy coach Elliot Wilson said: "With the Bunburys, Jack Haynes, who last year captained Bunburys as an under-14, will be a strong contender to be involved again this year along with his two counterparts in his age group side of Zain Hassan from Stourbridge CC and Matthew Davis from Old Elizabethans CC.

"Those three are really strong candidates from our Pathway to get into the Bunburys regional side.

"Xavi Clarke, who is from Oswestry CC and on our satellite academy in Shropshire with Paul Pridgeon is also a strong candidate to potentially be involved along with Daniel Hughes who is at Shrewsbury School and has done a bit of work with our satellite academy.

"With the Super-Fours, Josh Haynes will again be somewhere near along with the other academy players George Newton and Jack Charters while Dylan Pennington, subject to fitness, will also be a strong contender for that group."

So how do players qualify for the Super Fours? Wilson explained: "Each academy director, all 18 of us, nominates players we feel would be candidates to play in Super Fours.

"They are then invited to observation days, they are then watched by national scouts and then the scouts and selectors of each region will come together and at a final trial select the group they believe is most suitable to participate in Super Fours."