2020 will be another big year for international cricket with the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup starting in February in Australia and the men’s event to follow from October 2020. Before then, the biennial ICC U19 World Cup gets underway in South Africa in mid-January — and New Zealand’s next generation of up and comers are aiming to be right in the mix for the title.

Preparations for the U19 World Cup have just stepped up a gear with a shadow NZ squad escaping the Kiwi winter for a couple of weeks to play Australia Under 19 in a one-day series in Brisbane from this weekend, followed by a training camp and internal squad games up in nearby Caloundra, on the Sunshine Coast.

CD is very proud to have three of our age-group representatives on the tour with RUBEN LOVE (Manawatū), JOEY FIELD (Hawke’s Bay) and WILL CLARK (Hawke’s Bay) all picked and set to pull on the black kit.

We spoke to 18-year-old Joey about what’s in store, and what the opportunity means for him and the lads.

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From winter camps in Lincoln to 21 degrees in Brisbane, how good is it to be playing outdoors on grass at this time of year?

JOEY FIELD: Yeah, I’m really looking forward to it! We’ve had three training camps in Lincoln to build up to this tour and, while the facilities down in Canterbury at Lincoln are amazing, it was so cold at all three of them. Unfortunately there was no hot water in the accommodation, something had gone wrong — maybe it was so cold the pipes were frozen. So we just went and showered at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval or had a cold shower!

With Uni in Hamilton, camps in Lincoln and also staying connected to Napier and our CDCA system, you’ve had a pretty busy off season already. How’s it been going juggling your commitments and schedule?

It has been a little bit of back and forth for me, but I’m relishing the opportunities. I’m based in the university halls in Hamilton at the moment, but I come home to Hawke’s Bay for cricket at the start of the season, and stay over the summer. I popped back home last week, just before this tour, and did some work in the nets with Aldin Smith (CD’s Assistant Coach). I caught up with Youngy (former NZU19 captain Will Young) the other day having his first gym session, and went and saw Ticks (Stags bowler Blair Tickner) in his new cafe.

Recently I’ve also been training with the Knights squad up in Hamilton, with CD’s blessing, when I’m there. Rubbing shoulders with those boys has been good — players who have represented the BLACKCAPS like Anton Devcich, BJ Watling and Daryl Mitchell. Last winter in the Bay I was training with some of the Stags boys like Dougie Bracewell, Ben Wheeler — I know Wheels from my Havelock club. It was really good to be able to do a little bit of bowling with them, and being able to talk to them about what I’m working on at the moment with my action.

Wheels had similar problems to me when he was younger, and now his action is perfect — it’s interesting for me to find out and understand where they started, and how they got to where they are now. It puts things in perspective for me. Aldin talks about getting your apprenticeship, with bowling. It takes time to get that well established so you put in the time, and then after that you’ll be away laughing.

As an opening bowler, how much are you looking forward to getting on what should be some good, hard Aussie decks?

“I was lucky enough to go on three or four cricket tours over there through my school, so I’ve played over there a little bit already — I’ve played at the Caloundra ground that we’re training at. I had to look up where Redlands was, and apparently they play first-class cricket there and some A stuff — it looks a quite nice ground. My impression is it’s not too different from New Zealand, but obviously it’s going to be a little bit hotter and the wickets will be hard, normally fast, good bounce. Being a tall opening bowler, that’s what you want — a bit of bounce!

You were named alongside Ruben in the New Zealand Under 19 squad to Bangladesh that had been set to tour in April, before the tour was cancelled in the wake of the Christchurch tragedy. This is a slightly different squad with four players, including Will Clark, who hadn’t been named for Bangladesh. You and Will have come up through the grades together, so that must be a nice touch to the way it’s worked out?

It’s cool to have two other CD boys in there. I know both Ruben and Will really well, but also yeah, me and Will have gone right through all the age-groups together. We play for the same club so we’ve played together at Havelock since the under-10s there. But I’m also looking forward to playing alongside the other guys on our tour, developing combinations and relationships out on the field. Funnily enough, the other opening bowler — Kristian Clarke from Hamilton, our mums are best friends. They were at university together and they played netball together. I’ve been training with Kristian in Hamilton, too, and I’ve got to know him really well.

It’s a pretty handy squad, and so is the opposition. How do you see it going against the Aussies?

Yes we have got a pretty strong team, and it will be interesting to see what the level of competition is against Australia, especially in their home conditions. Australia is regarded as one of the top two Under 19 teams in the world so it’s a good test. We should be able to see where we are at as a group. And personally, it will be good for me to test how I’m tracking. I want to be able to consistently perform at a high level.

I played a little bit of indoor last year [Joey was selected for NZ at the Under 17 Indoor Cricket World Cup] and we played against Australia there, too: you can see that even when they walk into the building, they’re looking around with the sense that they are the top team there. I’m sure there will be a little bit of chat!

You made your Hawke Cup debut earlier this year in what turned out to be a pretty special 10-wicket win over Nelson to bring the Cup to Hawke’s Bay. The Hawke Cup is legendary for its hard-edged style of cricket and unforgiving battles — what did you take away from that experience?

“I’d never played a three-dayer until then — I’d only played Furlong Cup games — and it was terrific experience. On a pitch of that quality, you could learn to adapt and try and change the angles, try different balls. It was a really good learning experience for me.

We set up a massive first innings score in that game (524/6, with Mattie Edmondson posting 242 and Angus Schaw 114*), and it was quite interesting watching how a team can approach trying to chase it. You definitely can’t just chill in the game because you think you’re going to win it easily. Josh Clarkson ended up smacking a hundred (164, following on), they were 400/6 and he almost got Nelson back in the game. It was a good lesson that the game can twist and turn, and can actually put your team under a bit of pressure.

It would have been nice to play in the following Hawke Cup match, too (Hawke’s Bay versus challengers Hamilton), against my brother James who plays for Hamilton. I was 12th man there, but I had been hoping to be able to bowl against him!

What are some of the other useful tips you’ve picked up since you’ve been in the more concentrated Under 19 set-up?

At our camps, Adam Miles from Otago has been there to help us work on the mental side of cricket and I’ve gained some more knowledge there that I’m enjoying trying to put into practice.

Even around pre-ball routines, for bowling and batting, it’s improved that area a whole lot. There’s a way more for me to go, but it’s exciting. For example, using the stumps at the non-striker’s end as a cue to switching off from the last ball and thinking about your options for the next ball — that’s a small routine I had never really done. It helps to push the last ball out of your head, to focus on the next ball so that when you’re running in, it’s clear in your head what you’re going to bowl. And applying it to training, as well.

South Africa is the main goal at this point in your career, what do you feel you have to do to be there?

I think the biggest thing for me is probably staying fit. Making sure I’m communicating with my coaches in CD no matter where I am, and staying on top of the S&C side of it. If I keep doing that, it will help me a lot.

After this tour, there’s a couple more NZ U19 camps in Lincoln, and then Bangladesh U19 are coming over here in late September. If I’m picked in that, I’ll want to be ready to keep performing. The coaches have talked about how the players that will go furthest will be the ones who learn the most from these tours and camps, so I’m trying to take as much as I can from these opportunities so that I can develop. Then we will have the national tournament in December.

You’re in your first year at Uni after Hastings Boys’ High, doing a Bachelor of Health Sport & Human Performance as a Sir Edmund Hillary scholar. How are you going balancing your sport with your first year away at Waikato?

It’s tough, especially as I need to do four papers next semester. I had done only three in the first semester because I thought we were going to be away in Bangladesh, before it got called off. If I don’t do four, I miss out on all my student allowances, student loan and some of my scholarship, so I’m going to have to work really hard in between cricket. But with the scholarship I am on, we’ve got a guy who oversees it and he’s someone you can go and talk to about it. We communicate with the lecturers and if you need a different schedule for your exams, they’ll sort it out for you.

Cricket’s such a thinking game. What made you want to study human performance and sports psychology?

I originally wanted to study physiotherapy, but this was an option at Waikato and I was interested to find out more about it. I wanted something that aligned well with my cricket so I can keep working hard towards my cricket goals at the same time.

NEW ZEALAND U19

WILL CLARK, JOEY FIELD,  RUBEN LOVE (CD); Adithya Ashok, Kristian Clarke, Lucas Dasent, Hayden Dickson, Jesse Frew, Jock McKenzie, Rhys Mariu, Tim Pringle, Ben Pomare, Jesse Tashkoff, Dylan Taylor, Ollie White

AUSTRALIA U19

Oliver Davies, Liam Scott, Lachlan Hearne, Liam Marshall, Sam Fanning, Max Clayton, Damien Burrage, Mackenzie Harvey, Corey Kelly, Yuvraj Sharma, Ryan Walker, Todd Murphy, Patrick Rowe, Ewan Neilson, Tanveer Sangha, Jake Fraser-McGurk

AUSTRALIA U19 v NEW ZEALAND U19

One-Day Series

Redlands Cricket Club, Brisbane

All games 11.30am NZT

(Please note: Schedule has been updated from the original due to early washed out matches)

Game 1

Sat 6 July

Game 2

Sun 7 July

Game 3

Tues 9 July

Game 4

Wed 10 July

Game 5

Fri 12 July

ICC U19 World Cup

South Africa

17 Jan — 9 Feb 2020

Article added: Friday 05 July 2019