Beach cricket with the Black Caps at Mount Drury draws crowd

Fans turned up en masse to play beach cricket with the two of their Black Cap heroes, Trent Boult and Ish Sodhi, at Mount Drury yesterday.

Among the young crowd was Eava Salt, 9, and her 6-year-old brother Jimmy, from Foxton Beach holidaying at Mount Maunganui.

Eava said she was now hooked on the game after getting some bowling and batting tips from Boult and becoming his batting partner.

"It was amazing. I have never done anything like this before, and getting the chance to play with such an awesome player like Trent Boult was absolutely fantastic.

"I'm definitely keen to play more cricket," she said.

Already showing some prowess was 18-month-old Noah West from Wellington, who grabbed the ball when it landed in front of him forcing Boult to coax him to give it back.

Noah's father Charlie West, who confessed to being a Black Caps fan, said his son was "definitely a thrower".

Boult said it was "always nice" to get among the fans and promote the two Black Caps v Bangladesh Twenty20 games on January 6 and 8 at Bay Oval.

"Being from Tauranga it's great to see the local fans especially turning up and clearly they're enjoying themselves. It's been a lot of fun for us as well," he said.

Boult pointed to young fan Jamie Veall, 9, from Te Puna, who he said had a great bowling arm and was already showing great prowess with the bat as well.

"Jamie is very keen. He's been at every Black Caps promotional event in the Bay, and clearly he's one to watch for the future," he said.

Jamie said he was a massive fan of former Black Caps captain Brendan McCullum and current captain Kane Williamson who he described as "awesome" players.

Getting the chance to bowl to fast bowler Trent Boult had been "amazing", he said.

Jamie's mother Tina McLennan said her son, who had only been playing for a year, was hooked on the game and they would be at the Bay Oval on Friday.