Junior cricket: Young cricketers get their chance

Rotorua's young cricketers will get their chance for higher honours when the Northern Districts Junior Secondary Tournament gets underway today.

A significant step in the Bay of Plenty age group pathway is the two Bay of Plenty Junior Secondary School representative cricket teams. Bay of Plenty Cricket has a well-defined age group pathway, which commences with the Primary teams and follows a graduated pathway to the Junior and Senior Secondary teams.

Bay of Plenty Blacks Caps Daniel Flynn, Kane Williamson and Trent Boult,  started their fledgling careers in Bay of

Plenty Secondary School teams, before progressing to professional cricket contracts.

The tournament which is being held in Manurewa starts today and contains secondary schools from within the Northern District's catchment.

With the players pathway, Bay of Plenty Cricket have a structured pathway for the districts coaching personnel. Bay of Plenty Senior Men's coach Ben Williams is a good example of the transition from coaching age group cricket to senior representative teams.

In less than a decade, Williams has been promoted from mentoring the initial age group Primary representatives, through to ND age group and the Bay of Plenty Development sides, to his  role in charge of the Bay of Plenty first eleven.

Lakeland coach Marc Crawford, who mentored the Lakeland Primary side last season, has earned promotion to a further step up the coaching pathway ladder.

By contrast, Coastland coach Peter Drysdale, who is a Bay of Plenty first eleven team member, is taking his first step from Saturday morning junior cricket coaching to rep coaching duties.

Bay of Plenty squads for the Northern Districts' Junior Secondary Tournament;

Bay of Plenty Lakeland; Alistar Blackett, Bradley Munro, Cameron Wood, Mikaere Watene, Ethan Martin, Rohan Gosai, Liam Kelly, James Dawson, Reece MacDonald, Declan Keaney, Rueben Te Kani-Taylor, Tom Yarrell. Coach: Marc Crawford

Bay of Plenty Coastland; Caleb Box, Cayne Dew, Blair McKenzie, Louis Morris, Jamie Oakley, Josh Ormrod, Jack Preston, Connor Probert, Tom Renouf, Israel Turner, Dylan Wadsworth, Sean Wakelin. Coach: Peter Drysdale