Northern Districts Junior Secondary School Cricket Tournament director Karen Kyle said Smallbone Park and Ray Boord Park were ideally suited to hosting cricket tournaments. Photo/Ben Fraser
Northern Districts Junior Secondary School Cricket Tournament director Karen Kyle said Smallbone Park and Ray Boord Park were ideally suited to hosting cricket tournaments. Photo/Ben Fraser
The future Kane Williamsons and Tim Southees could be on display in Rotorua next month.
From December 4-8 Rotorua Cricket is hosting the annual Northern Districts Junior Secondary School Cricket Tournament.
Competing at the tournament will be two teams from Bay of Plenty/Coastlands and one each from Northland, Poverty Bay, Hamilton, Waikato Valley and Counties Manukau, as well as a composite team comprising players from each of the associations.
Northern Districts Junior Secondary School Cricket Tournament director Karen Kyle said Smallbone Park and Ray Boord Park were ideally suited to hosting cricket tournaments. Photo/Ben Fraser
Tournament manager Karen Kyle, of Rotorua Cricket, said Smallbone Park and Ray Boord Park were ideally suited to hosting cricket tournaments.
"It's a lot of pressure, hosting the tournament, but I think it's worth it because it's something good for Rotorua cricket. For spectators it's a chance to see some future stars and for our local players it is a chance to be part of something and test themselves. It shows them we do have that pathway.
"It will be nice to have it here and promote what we have in Rotorua. We want to bring back the feeling to cricket that you can go and watch it, people don't go and watch a lot of club cricket anymore. I hope people come to watch and support these kids," Kyle said.
Northern Districts cricket development officer Cliff Dickeson said the tournament comprised a combination of short and long forms of the game.
Smallbone Park. Photo/File
"On the first day they'll play two Twenty20s, the next two days they'll play two 50-over games. As a result of that they'll be placed from one to eight and they all play a two-day game to finish off the tournament and for final placings.
"We have three tournaments each year, primary, junior secondary and senior secondary, and they are really, really important for ND because of our geographical expanse. We're able to identify the young talented cricketers coming through," Dickeson said.
He said some of Northern Districts' top players, such as Black Caps Williamson and Southee, would have played in these tournaments as children.
"Part of the selection of our under-17 team comes out of this tournament. We don't place a lot of emphasis on the winning, we place it on the athlete development. It's important for us and for the kids to showcase their skills.
"The other thing is they're coming from all different areas and ND is such a massive expanse, it does allow them to meet potential teammates going into the future, at all different levels."
He said it was "very important" to include all three formats of the game.
"Being able to play the shorter version as well as the two-day stuff is important these days. While T20 has increased the scoring ability of a lot of our cricketers, the two-day format is important in teaching them how to develop an innings and bowl longer periods.
"Rotorua is nice and central and has all those grass pitches within close proximity - not a lot of areas have that. We just have to hope for good weather.
"We allocate the tournament to different associations and Rotorua, to me, seemed logical because we hadn't had anything there for a long time. We asked the Rotorua sub-association and then I talked to Bay of Plenty cricket and both enthusiastically agreed."
