Central Districts Cricket Association

NZ UNDER 19 REPRESENTATIVE PATHWAY

In 2019, the ICC announced the introduction of an ICC Women's Under-19 World Cup. The first edition was in January 2023 in South Africa. CD's EMMA McLEOD, alongside two CD Alumni coaches in SARA McGLASHAN and TARUN NETHULA, represented us in the inaugural world tournament.

This global tournament complements the long-running ICC U19 World Cup for men, first contested in 1988 and held every two years, with various ICC member nations taking turns to host the glamorous, televised event.

The ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2024 will be hosted by Sri Lanka, and then the next ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025 will be held in Malaysia and Thailand.

Runners-up in 1998, New Zealand has never lifted an ICC U19 World Cup. But many BLACKCAPS have got their start by making the NZ U19s, playing their top peers around the world in this competitive arena.

Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Will Young, Ish Sodhi, Brendon McCullum and Stephen Fleming are just a few of the many BLACKCAPS or Stags to have pulled on the NZ U19 silver fern. Young is a former NZ U19 captain and no double the women's World Cup will prove to be similar stepping stone.

CD UNDER 19

The road to representing New Zealand Under 19 starts with making CENTRAL DISTRICTS UNDER 19, one of the pathways for players to put their hands up to play for our Central Stags and Central Hinds flagship teams.

At the height of every summer, we really look forward to selecting and sending our best young men and women in this age group to the respective Gillette national tournaments, in Lincoln at NZC's High Performance Centre.

Here the goal is to not only perform well and consistently as a team, but to show what you've got, with an eye to making the national U19 squad as part of New Zealand's next generation of Domestic and International players.

In 2022/23, our CD Under 19 women had another strong tournament at Nationals, making a clean sweep of their T20s and finishing runners-up to new champion Wellington - with only one point in it!

2021/22 - A SPECIAL SUMMER FOR CD UNDER 19 CRICKET!

In 2022, for the first time CENTRAL DISTRICTS Cricket could celebrate holding both national Under 19 trophies at once, with CD U19 men lifting the men's trophy for the first time, against strong competition Captain Curtis Heaphy raised the trophy just a week after our CD U19 Women had won the female title for the second time in three years

CENTRAL DISTRICTS also became the first Major Association to win both national Under-19 titles in the same season!

• Women's Gillette Venus NZC Under 19 Nationals • 6-12 January 2022

Tournament winner: CENTRAL DISTRICTS

• Men's Gillette NZC Under 19 Nationals • 15-21 January 2022

Tournament winner: CENTRAL DISTRICTS

Sadly for our top Under 19 men, in 2021/22 the NZ U19 national team did not travel to the ICC U19 World Cup (men) due to consideration around the MIQ requirements in place at the time to manage the COVID pandemic, and the age of the players involved.

Instead, a New Zealand Development squad programme was played with the "NZ Development squad" playing matches throughout New Zealand against Domestic A sides, including CD A.