Boys’ Cricket Tour Proposed

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32349, 15 July 1970, Page 19

Boys ’ Cricket Tour Proposed

New Zealand officials will be asked to take an ] important step forward ( at the next meeting of ; the board of control, ’ early in August. ' It is proposed to set up a 1 junior council to control l cricket below Brabin tournament level, and to discuss l details of a proposed Aus- 1 tralian tour next season—by 1 a team of secondary school-' boys. The creation of such a body, ] affiliated to the New Zealand ' Cricket Council, would bring ’ New Zealand into line with I Australia, India, Pakistan, 1 South Africa and the West 1 Indies, all of which have 1 similar organisations. 1 The tour, almost certain to 1 be held, will give young New Zealand cricketers a wonder- 1 ful opportunity to improve their play. The chairman of the cricket . council’s board of control (Mr i J. G. Leggat) said yesterday • that the proposed junior council would look after I cricketers through their 1 school careers and until they were 18. The proposal to s form the council was the outcome of two meeting earlier j in the winter, at which delegates from the major associa- • tions had met the Christ- ■ church-based executive of the board.

It would be the aim of r the new council, Mr Leggat tfaid, to take charge of the organisation of junior cricket add to arrange tournaments and. provincial programmes, particularly during the long/school vacation when mos'i boys lacked opportunities Ao play cricket continuously. I Some provincial / tourna- . ments were already being . played, Mr Leggat saftd. It was ■ hoped that opportunities . would be extended,’to all who wished to play, whether or not their provinces w/jre competing at present. Already there was an inter-isla jid match for primary scfioorA.oys, and as the scope of 7hese matches has been exfenljed it had become apparent/ that a separate organisation \vas needed to cope with boys’ cricket. That there/ was a very good chance of 7 national schoolboys’ team /going to Australia was due Almost entirely to the efforts? of Mr I. P. Anderson, a Canterbury cricket official vi/tio had undertaken the negotiations in a private Mr Leggat said. Mr /jiderson said yesterday that it/ was proposed to take 17 players on the tour, which woul'A begin on December 27 and end on January 30. The included six twoday i games, and New Zealand wMld join the seven Australian states in a schools’ cri/cket week in Sydney, bur-

ing the tournament each side would play six one-day games.

There was the prospect of a two-day “test” match with an Australian schoolboys' team, also in Sydney. Selection of the New Zealand team would be a problem in the first season, Mr Anderson said, but it was hoped to arrange for the six major associations to nominate their best players, and for someone like the national coach, M. J. Horton, to choose a balanced side from the lists submitted. It might be possible for associations to arrange trials before making their nominations. The junior council would be domiciled in Wellington. There was a good chance of holding similar tours in the years ahead, Mr Anderson said, and it was planned that after the first season, there would be trials and interproyincial and possibly interisland games before touring teams were chosen.

The other cricketing nations with similar junior organisations sent teams on tour, and when they went to Australia, there was a prospect of an extension for a short visit to New Zealand, Mr Anderson said. In some years, New Zealand would be able to go to Australia while ahother side was touring, and

meet it and Australia in a triangular contest.

In the first season, boys chosen to tour would have to meet their own costs, Mr Anderson said. With billetting wherever they went, it was estimated that the tour would probably cost each player $250. It was hoped that provincial boys’ associations would set up touring funds to meet part of these costs in future years, but there would always be considerable reliance on the boys’ own efforts to raise money, and on individual sponsorships. The New Zealand team to tour would be announced in October, to give the chosen players as much time as possible to raise the money, Mr Anderson said.