Indoor cricket: Astwood selected for Northern Districts

Rotorua's Ben Astwood has made a Northern Districts indoor cricket team. Photo/Stephen Parker

Rotorua's Ben Astwood started playing indoor cricket as a way to keep his skills sharp throughout winter. Now he is preparing to represent Northern Districts at a provincial indoor tournament.

The 15-year-old Western Heights High School student is in the under-16 side which will play against teams from Auckland, Canterbury, Central Districts, Southern Districts and Wellington between July 14-16 in Christchurch.

There are six teams entered in the under-16 tournament. They will play a full round robin. Then in the semifinals first plays fourth and second plays third for a spot in the Grand Final.

Indoor cricket is a condensed, fast-paced version of its outdoor cousin. It combines basic rules and skills of the traditional game with modifications designed to get everybody involved.

Batsmen bat in pairs for four overs at a time. When they lose a wicket, rather than finish batting they lose five runs from their total.

Ben said he was playing indoor cricket on Fridays in Tauranga, for a Rotorua team, "just for fun".

"I got asked from there to play in the Mount Makos under-16 team against Pakuranga and Hamilton over three weekends. From there they selected the squad for Northern Districts.

"I'd normally play outdoor cricket in the summer and our manager suggested playing indoor cricket to keep the skills alright through the off season. In indoor cricket, you have to bat and bowl and it was just a bit of a knock around, I wasn't planning on taking it too seriously.

"When they asked me to play for Makos I still wasn't really expecting to make it.

He said it was "cool" and a nice surprise to make a representative indoor team. While the fast-paced nature of the indoor version of the game required a slightly different approach, the basic skills were the same.

"I normally bowl offspin in outdoor cricket, but not many people bowl spin in indoor, so I thought I'd better bowl fast and sort of had to learn that. I'm probably more of a batsman than a bowler.

"It should be fun going down to Christchurch for a few days. Wellington are probably one of the top teams, I think we're sort of hoping for top three.

"My goal is probably to just not take the team backwards, hopefully I can contribute and we make good scores. It's a lot faster than outdoor cricket, it goes for about an hour and a half usually.

"In the squad there are eight people from Pakuranga and two from Bay of Plenty, including me."

Ben started playing cricket as a 3-year-old and has loved it since. He enjoyed that there was an individual aspect, despite being a team sport.

"Even if you lose, you can still do well yourself. [In the future] I'd like to play for the Bay of Plenty men's team. I'll need to keep improving and representing Lakelands to get noticed at Northern Districts outdoor tournaments."