Otago Cricket wishes to advise interested parties that this year there will be a change to our boys representative age groups.

New Zealand Cricket will now run a National Tournament at U19 (Not U18 as has happened for the previous few seasons). The main reasons for this being that the under 19 age group lines up with the ICC international standard and the Under 19 mens programme is considered to be the entry point for NZC’s high performance programme.

Under this there is no other National Tournament. Canterbury Cricket however will host an U17 Quadrangular Tournament in Christchurch and will also pick a representative side at U15 level.

In order to take advantage of the above it makes sense  to alter our District Tournaments to enable us to select Otago representative Teams at U17 and U15 Age Groups (Otago Cricket will also continue to pick a training group from the South Island Primary schools Tournament).

District Tournaments:

Oamaru – Labour Weekend – U17
Alexandra – December – U15

Otago Cricket believe this is what will best serve our young cricketers. We acknowledge there may be some disruption in the short term but ultimately this will allow us to see more young cricketers in representative cricket.

For more information contact Will Deerness on (03) 477-9056 or email will@otagocricket.co.nz