The Independent's ones to watch in 2016: Tom Curran, Sophie Luff, Josh Onomah and more

The first in a two-part feature in which The Independent’s team of writers choose faces to look out for over the next 12 months

Sophie Luff and Tom Curran are two cricketers looking to make a major breakthrough in 2016 (Don Miles; Getty Images)

Tom Curran

by Stephen Brenkley
Cricket Correspondent

England are picking so many players at present that it is possible they do not know where to turn next. Expect Tom Curran to feature some time shortly.

Curran, 20, is a cricketer for the modern age and if the World Twenty20 in March is just a little too soon it may be only by months. Curran (and his 17-year-old brother Sam) are cricketers burgeoning with innocent, youthful excitement. Watching Tom Curran last season was to be thrilled at the prospect of what he can achieve.

Less thrilling perhaps was the ponytail, but that has been shed, part of a teenage experiment. He was born in Cape Town, the son of the former Zimbabwe cricketer, Kevin, who also represented Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire with distinction.

This is bound to have a corrosive effect on some views but Curran maintains that England was always his ambition and he came to the country to be educated at Wellington School after being spotted by the former Surrey and England player, Ian Greig. Barely had he begun at the school than his father died suddenly.

Curran decided to stay and his brother Sam is still a Wellington pupil. Making his first-class debut in 2014, Tom was splendid last summer, taking 77 Championship wickets in Surrey’s successful promotion drive.

His promising batting has not yet borne similar fruit but, having qualified for England in October, he joined up with England Lions on their recent tour to UAE. On his debut his controlled 2 for 15 from four overs was instrumental in tying an exciting series, which England eventually won.

He is mature beyond his years – his director of cricket at Surrey, Alec Stewart, says he has the nous of a 27-year-old. Not having yet qualified he was originally omitted from the Lions, which brought this response from Stewart: “I find it staggering that he isn’t in the squad because if he’s not going to be an international cricketer, then my judgement of what makes an international cricketer is not what I think it should be.”

Bryson DeChambeau

by Kevin Garside
Golf Correspondent

Bryson DeChambeau (Getty Imges)

For the name alone Bryson DeChambeau is worthy of note. Throw in the Hogan cap he sports and a CV that boasts victories in 2015 at the US Amateur and the NCAA (National Collegiate Championships), then you have a rare beast indeed. Only four in the history of golf had won the US Amateur and NCAA titles in the same year, and three of those are legends in the game: Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

DeChambeau is in his final year as a physics student at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and is expected to turn professional after the Masters, entry to which was gained via his US Amateur triumph.

That success also earned entry into the US Open and the Open, but he will forgo those invitations to join the professional ranks.

At the Australian Open in November he finished alongside the European Ryder Cup captain, Darren Clarke, in a tie for 30th. Marc Leishman, who lost out, along with Louis Oosthuizen, to Zach Johnson in the play-off at the 2015 Open, was one of those who missed the cut.

After his success at the US Open this year, his second major win in two months, at the age of 21, Jordan Spieth expressed the view that an amateur would win a major within the next 10 years, such is the calibre of junior golf in the modern era. Maybe that could be DeChambeau at Augusta, prêt-à-jouer, as it were?

The other point of interest with DeChambeau is his preference for a set of irons with shafts all the same length, in his case seven-iron spec.

Loft and weight of the club heads are the variables that allow him to achieve the differing distances. Being a physics student, DeChambeau will tell you that distance is a function of mass times acceleration squared. But you already knew that, right?

Sophie Luff

by Jon Culley
Cricket writer

After Charlotte Edwards’ team made such a poor job of defending the Ashes on home turf in 2015, there has not been a better moment for some years for talented young women cricketers to catch the eye of the England selectors.

England’s 10-6 defeat in the points-based scoring from the unique three-format, seven-match Ashes series left question marks over the future of a number of established senior players, none more so than the captain, 36-year-old Charlotte Edwards, who has served the nation with such distinction over 11 seasons but found herself out-thought and outfought by the Australian captain, Meg Lanning, who is 13 years her junior.

Nat Sciver, the hard-hitting 23-year-old Surrey all-rounder, produced more evidence of her potential to become a big name, registering both England’s best individual score of the series and best bowling analysis. She has been playing alongside Lanning for Melbourne Stars in the inaugural women’s Big Bash.

Looking further ahead, one player who clearly has a bright future is Sophie Luff, a Somerset team-mate of England bowler Anya Shrubsole, who was named 2015’s “most promising young female cricketer” by the Cricket Society.

The 22-year-old top-order batsman, who plays alongside her father and brother for Lympsham in the Somerset League, scored three centuries in 2015, including an unbeaten 138 as Somerset beat Wales to clinch promotion to the First Division of the women’s County Championship.

Currently a member of the England Women’s Academy programme, Luff is just back from a training camp in Sri Lanka ahead of England’s 2016 series in South Africa and the ICC Women’s World Twenty20, to be hosted by India in March.

Josh Onomah

by Glenn Moore
Football Editor

Josh Onomah (Getty Images)

For a young player to make the breakthrough in elite football the environment and timing must be right. Tottenham Hotspur is fast becoming the right place, and the reign of Mauricio Pochettino the right time, to bring through young players.

The latest tyro to roll off the club’s Enfield production line is a tall, muscular, exciting, confident 18-year-old midfielder. Josh Onomah was born, like Ryan Mason, near the club’s training base and has been with Tottenham since he was nine years old.

He made a brief substitute appearance last season, in an FA Cup replay, but showed enough in the youth and U21 teams to earn a new contract in the summer. This year he has made several substitute appearances, often introduced during tense match situations, with the result in the balance, and has always looked nerveless. His first start came in mid-December, against Monaco in the Europa League, and again he looked comfortable, directing older players as if a veteran.

Coming through the ranks Onomah has often played deep, influencing a match with his long passing and acting as a defensive screen. Mousa Dembélé is a role model. So far, in the first team, he has been given more attacking licence and has flourished, taking on opponents with enthusiasm and not shy to shoot. The fans have quickly taken to him, developing an individual chant based on his surname’s similarity to the Muppets’ theme tune.

He has also enjoyed a taste of success, being part of the England team that won the European U17 Championship in May 2014. While one team-mate from then, Liverpool’s Joe Gomez, has prospered in the Premier League (prior to injury) the likes of Chelsea duo Isaiah Brown and Dominic Solanke must look at Onomah and wonder if they are in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Air Force Blue

by Jon Freeman
Racing writer

Whether over the jumps or on the Flat, the narrative for Britain’s racing seasons is these days driven by the Irish, or more particularly by Willie Mullins and Aidan O’Brien.

Mullins will probably dominate the main events again at Cheltenham in March and while there’s a different rhythm to the Flat season – a series of peaks rather than a long steady build-up to the spring festivals – here, too, the story will once more revolve around what O’Brien lets loose from Ballydoyle.

And this year the story, or at least the start of it, is Air Force Blue, Coolmore’s latest “special” horse.

“No doubt, the best juvenile I’ve trained,” says O’Brien. Granted, this theme has been heard from the trainer before in recent times: about Australia (“the best I’ve trained”) and Gleneagles (“I don’t think we’ve had a miler as good as him”) but it wasn’t just big talk – they both delivered in the Classics.

If anything, the buzz for Air Force Blue, inevitably a hot favourite for next year’s 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket following his demolition job in the Dewhurst Stakes at the course last October, is even louder.

Even Ryan Moore is excited. The day before the Dewhurst, the famously deadpan jockey was purring quietly over stablemate Minding’s smooth-as-silk success in another Group One contest, but was apparently counselled by one and all at Ballydoyle: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

O’Brien told him: “Just wait till tomorrow. That filly couldn’t lead Air Force Blue halfway in a gallop.”

Of course, Ballydoyle does not always get it right – go back a year to their list of 2015 Classic hopefuls and you will find a fair share of flops – and obviously there will be genuine contenders housed elsewhere, some perhaps still to race.

But however it all turns out in the end, for now and until further notice, Air Force Blue is definitely the one to watch.

Zharnel Hughes

by Matt Majendie
Athletics Correspondent

Zharnel Hughes (Getty Images)

It’s hard to live up to the billing as “the next Usain Bolt” but 2016 will prove Hughes’ chance to do just that.

For one, he learns from the best on a daily basis, coached as he is by Glenn Mills at the Racers’ Track Club in Jamaica, where Bolt and Yohan Blake also train.

Both sprinters, says Hughes, have imparted their knowledge to the 20-year-old, who on the evidence of his junior career could prove better than both men.

At the prestigious Jamaican School Championships, he broke Blake’s 100m record and would in all likelihood have eclipsed Bolt’s 200m mark had he not withdrawn from the longer event because of a hamstring scare.

Britain are lucky to have him. There were rumours he might compete for Jamaica but the Anguillan athlete opted for a GB jersey instead, on account of the fact that Anguilla cannot compete at the Olympics as it does not have an Olympic committee, but Hughes qualifies for GB as it is a British Overseas Territory.

Hughes has been able to enter the senior ranks relatively behind the scenes, but still raised some eyebrows as he narrowly missed out on becoming the third Briton in history to dip under the 20-second barrier for the 200m as he finished fifth behind Bolt in the World Championships.

British Athletics’ performance director, Neil Black, has called him “the real deal” and is confident the youngster can win a medal for Britain at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

With Adam Gemili returning to full fitness from a hamstring tear, which ruled him out of the World Championships in Beijing, the British rivalry between him and Hughes has the potential to push the pair from being finalists to medallists on the world stage.

A rangy runner in the mould of Bolt – hence the comparison – Hughes is marginally the better bet.

Geraint Thomas

by Alasdair Fotheringham
Cycling Correspondent

He’s already taken two Olympic gold medals on the track, Commonwealth Games road-race gold and Sky’s biggest victory in their six-year history in a spring Classic – cycling’s top one-day races – in Belgium’s E3 Harelbeke last April, as well as a host of lesser races. As for 2016, Geraint Thomas says it’s the year in which he hopes to make a breakthrough in the Tour de France.

The 30-year-old Cardiff-born rider nearly did just that in 2015, when he only lost his grip on a top-five position in Paris in the final two days of Alpine racing, and slumped to a still respectable 15th overall. That was without a season-long build-up to the Tour, as will be his case in 2016.

A word of caution: Thomas will be riding as Sky’s “Plan B” in the 2016 Tour de France, with Chris Froome as the undisputed leader. He will have to sacrifice his chances of success in the spring Classics as well, which represents a significant loss for Sky in their campaign (finally) to net one of the sport’s five “Monuments” – the five biggest Classics of the season.

But the game is arguably worth the candle. Focusing on the Tour 100 per cent is the only way the Welshman will get to learn how high he can truly aim in cycling’s biggest stage race, even if he might well have to leave Sky – as he has said is possible in two or three years’ time – in order to go for that goal as an individual team leader. In the meantime, although Thomas is talking about a top-five result as a success, Sky could well be aiming to put both Froome and Thomas on the 2016 Tour’s final podium – just as they did with Wiggins and Froome in the 2012 Tour. After France, it’s on to the Olympic Games, where a Tour-fit Thomas could well be in his element in Rio’s hilly road race.

Bersant Celina

by Jack Pitt-Brooke
Football writer

Bersant Celina (Getty Images)

It is not easy being an academy player at Manchester City and they have produced plenty of talented youngsters who have found their path to the first team blocked. Denis Suarez was the last next big thing and he is now back in Spain with Villarreal.

And yet there is a real buzz at City about Celina, their 19-year-old creative midfielder who has been the star of the elite development squad this season.

Like Suarez before him, Celina is perfectly balanced and technically excellent, but is also a brilliant free-kick taker. He scored a delightful goal against Southampton Under-21s, curling a shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. Staff at City rave about Celina’s ability but also about his incredible commitment and dedication to making it there. If he does not break through, no one will.

City’s manager, Manuel Pellegrini, rates Celina highly and he was on the bench for the Champions League group games against Borussia Mönchengladbach and Juventus.

There is even a hope at City that Celina might be able to develop at the club rather than needing time out on loan. They are hoping to tie him to a new deal soon.

Celina is also facing an interesting decision over his international future. He was born in Kosovo in 1996, his family moving to Norway in 1999. He has represented Norway at youth levels, recently for the Under-21s, while also playing friendlies for the newly established Kosovo national team.

In November, Kosovo played neighbours Albania in a friendly in Pristina and Celina opened the scoring for them with a clever penalty. When he finally decides which country to represent at senior level, it will be worth watching.