Photo Credit: Cricket NSW
Experienced top order batter Nic Maddinson and explosive wicketkeeper/batter Josh Philippe have been confirmed as the key new faces in the NSW Men’s Team for the 2024/25 season ahead of the announcement of the Blues full contract list next week.
Both Maddinson (three Tests and six T20Is) and Philippe (three ODIs and ten T20I’s) have played for Australia and each has been part of Sheffield Shield and domestic One-Day Cup winning squads.
The dual signings are a massive coup for a NSW squad that finished runners-up in this summer’s Marsh One-Day Cup tournament and placed third on the Marsh Sheffield Shield table.
Maddinson, 32, who was born in Nowra on the NSW South Coast and who made his Sheffield Shield debut for the Blues in 2010, returns home after six seasons with Victoria.
He captained NSW in six Shield matches in the 2015/16 season and has now amassed more than 7,500 runs in First-Class cricket, including 18 tons and 35 half centuries. In the 2019/20 season he shared the Sheffield Shield Player of the Year award with current NSW captain Moises Henriques. Maddinson has also played more than 100 List A matches for 3010 runs.
Philippe will reconnect with many of his Sydney Sixers teammates at the Blues, including Henriques and coach Greg Shipperd. The 26-year-old has already played 89 matches for the Sixers since his debut for the club in BBL|08, winning a pair of titles and a Player of the Tournament trophy. He holds the competition’s record for the most dismissals by a wicketkeeper and is second on the Sixers’ all-time run scorers list behind only Henriques.
In a seven-year career with Western Australia, Philippe played 39 First-Class matches and 41 List A fixtures, scoring multiple centuries in each format and snaring more than 150 dismissals behind the stumps.
Shipperd said the additions of Maddinson and Philippe were ‘the perfect extra ingredients to thicken the competitive soup growing within our squad’.
“Nic (Maddinson) and Josh (Philippe) bring experience and also a familiarity with our players, coaches and the NSW set up so their transition should be seamless,” Shipperd said.
“Both Nic and Josh have played for their country, but we believe both have the ability to further develop their individual games and grow as cricketers and people. It’s going to be exciting to watch their journey.
“Putting together a successful squad requires a balance between experienced and emerging talent and we believe we are developing that balance well.”
The Blues will return to training at Cricket Central in June.
