Despite being one of the standout teams at Nationals in the last fortnight, JOEY FIELD will be CD Under 19's sole representative at the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa early next year.

CD U19 finished in the top two at Nationals and was the only team to beat defending champions and repeat title winners Auckland, taking four wins from the five one-day matches and handing Auckland defeat in yesterday's T20s.

Allrounder Field captained a side that saw Jordie Gard finish as the national tournament's top wicket-taker with 16 and both Will Clark (343) and Finn Raxworthy (316) in the top three run-scorers.

New Zealand Under 19 men’s coach Paul Wiseman is forecasting a challenging few months ahead for New Zealand's young cricketers, naming a 15-strong squad that will travel to South Africa for a warm-up tournament starting on January 3, before the World Cup officially kicks off on January 18 2020.

“These boys should be proud of their selection in the U19 side but they will know the hard work is ahead of them," said Wiseman.

"We saw how strong the Bangladesh U19 side were that toured here recently, and we’re expecting a highly competitive World Cup.

“We're very happy with the squad we've selected and believe the group will give us the best chance of success - but we're under no illusions how tough it's going to be.

After a “highly competitive” U19 National Tournament held in Lincoln over the past two weeks, Wiseman said narrowing the squad down to just 15 names was a unenviable challenge for him and the selection group.

“Naturally there’s going to be some disappointed players, but that’s just part of cricket. We'll have conversations with those who have missed out and, as has been proven in the past, this is by no means the end of their cricketing journey.”

New Zealand 2020 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup Squad

Jesse Tashkoff (captain) – Wellington

Adithya Ashok – Auckland

Kristian Clarke – Northern Districts

Hayden Dickson – Northern Districts

JOEY FIELD – Central Districts

David Hancock – Northern Districts

Simon Keene – Auckland

Fergus Lellman – Northern Districts

Nicholas Lidstone – Canterbury

Rhys Mariu – Canterbury

William O’Rourke – Auckland

Ben Pomare – Northern Districts

Quinn Sunde – Auckland

Beckham Wheeler-Greenall – Otago

Oliver White – Northern Districts

Standby Players

Angus Sidey – Canterbury

Ryan Jackson – Wellington

Devan Vishvaka – Wellington

Lucas Dasent – Auckland

Tom Dunlop – Canterbury

Article added: Thursday 12 December 2019