Former England under 19 representative Jack Burnham to play for WDCA club Northern Raiders in 2022-23 season

Former England under 19 representative Jack Burnham will join the club, alongside ex-Melbourne Cricket Club paceman Pat Smith.

Burnham, a 25-year-old middle-order batsman, has 52 first-class matches under his belt with Durham in the UK, after debuting at just 18. He scored 2045 runs in that time at an average of 25.56, with a highest score of 135. His last match came in 2021.

The Englishman also has the honour of being the leading run-scorer from the 2016 Under 19 World Cup in Bangladesh. He amassed 418 runs, with three centuries to lead all-comers and surpassed Sir Alastair Cook's England record for the biennial tournament.

Smith, raised in Warrnambool and a former player for Wesley-CBC, is older at 37 but brings with him a wealth of experience at the Premier Cricket level.

The paceman played more than 200 games for the Melbourne Cricket Club, with his career-best season in 2013-14 yielding 42 wickets in the top grade. The year prior he played in first XI premierships across all three formats.

Raiders president Trevor Dowd was pleased to have the duo on-board.

"They're a couple of pieces of the puzzle that will be quite handy," he said.

Burnham is due to arrive in Warrnambool in the next couple of weeks and will be living locally, working as a labourer for the duration of the season. He was lured to the south-west through a connection with an English player who had previously played in the area.

"He seems like he's going to be a good fit and he's excited to come over," Dowd said.

Smith will commute from Melbourne for games, how many of which is uncertain at this stage.

"Pat Smith, it's a bit of a homecoming I suppose," the Raiders president said. "To have a bloke of his calibre with the amount of wickets that he's taken in the big smoke is fairly handy."

The juniors at the club will benefit immensely from both recruits. Dowd said Smith is keen to aid in their development while Burnham - who he believes has a level two coaching accreditation - will also help out.

Burnham found himself in hot water in 2017 when he tested positive to a recreational drug for the third time. He was playing for Durham at the time and was subsequently handed a 12-month ban from the game. Dowd is well-aware of the incident but is happy with his progression.

"A lot of people may judge him on what they read there but at the end of the day we all make mistakes," he said.

"At the end of the day he was young and he shouldn't be branded with bad decisions from your youth that would then actually follow you for the rest of your life.

"We've been told that that's all in the past so we can only believe that's 100 per cent true. Obviously when he gets here we'll make sure that he's happy in the environment here and plays well and we make him feel welcome."

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