Cricket: Two Whanganui junior players off to tour Sri Lanka with Ontario Academy

Matthew Hocquard and Henry Blackley will tour Sri Lanka with the Ontario Cricket Academy Under 19 squad, which includes three players who have been on excursion recently. Photo / Supplied

Two promising Cricket Wanganui Under 15 players are off on the trip of a lifetime with the chance to tour all across Sri Lanka, with games every day for nearly two weeks.

Matthew Hocquard and Henry Blackley flew out of Palmerston North Airport yesterday on the first step of their journey to link up with the Ontario Cricket Academy team in Canada, where they will be joining three players who have been part of the Premier 1 club competition.

Recent ICC Under 19 World Cup standout Akhil Kumar, along with wicketkeeper Siddh Ladd and batsman Harakaran Mann – all Tech Old Boys players – are also on the Ontario Under 19 tour of Sri Lanka, with Mann named skipper and Kumar his vice captain.

Former Cricket Wanganui general manager Dilan Raj, now the Director of Cricket in Manawatu, said Hocquard and Blackley's excursion is the next stage of the Ontario Cricket Academy and Cricket Whanganui partnership, where local players can join their development tours.

The last four summers have seen a handful of teenaged Indian-Canadian players come to New Zealand for their winter off-seasons – joining up with the Tech Olds Boys side in Premier 1.

The likes of longest-tenured player Akash Gill and promising allrounder Kumar have progressed to high levels in the Central Districts set up, while others like Mann and Ladd followed in their footsteps with Tech in the last two seasons.

Allrounder Gill has now stayed in Whanganui for long enough to qualify as a domestic player and became a key man for both Tech in the Coastal Challenge and for Unreal Grass Wicket Wanganui in Furlong Cup cricket.

He was also become a regular for the Central Districts A squad, who this week played out a draw with Wellington A in the National Men's Provincial A competition at the Basin Reserve.

Gill took 3-71 from his 17 overs in the first innings as CD A dismissed Wellington A for 245, and had just come out to bat when his side declared at 446-7 in reply, with former Whanganui Collegiate old boy Tom Bruce (Taranaki) getting back into form with 103 from 117 balls.

Wellington batted out the final day at 245-3, with neither Gill nor Bruce adding further wickets.

Kumar followed in Gill's footsteps by playing for Canada at the Under 19 world cup in South Africa in January and early February, where he finished tied for second-most wickets in the tournament with 16.

Gill was then named 12th man for the official tournament team, and the Ontario Cricket Academy press release said he will be the "marquee player" on the Sri Lanka tour.

Recent Tech College Old Boys player Akhil Kumar will be vice captain of the Ontario team. Photo / Getty Images

He is one of four Ontario players going to Sri Lanka who were in the wider Canada U19 world cup squad, with Gurjot Gosal having also played in South Africa.

Mann, who played for Tech last summer, has been in India since January on exchange at academies run by two famous test players.

He has learned at Ravichandran Ashwin's Gen-Next in Chennai, as well as Yuvraj Singh's Centre of Excellence in Amritsar.

Ontario will play in Sri Lanka from now through to March 23 local time – 11 matches in 10 days – in a mixture of Twenty20, 30 and 40 over games.

"Starting off in Colombo, they will play some tough opposition including Ananda College, St Benedict's and the Sri Lanka Army U23 B side," said the OCA press release.

"Moving south to Matara, the team will face up against Stallions and Serendib academy teams.

"In the last stretch to Negombo, the team takes on Serendib for the last set of games."

This will be the 15th international tour at the Ontario academy has undertaken, which is treated as an opportunity to develop players outside of their comfort zones in difficult conditions against tough opponents.