Youth Grades 2010/11
| Youth Players - Youth Players |
Auckland Cricket has recently confirmed changes to its male age group representative structure in response to the changes made nationally by NZ Cricket. The age group rep pathway is now:
Year 7 & 8 → Year 9 &10 → Under 18
District tournaments will be held at each of these age groups and
To ensure alignment at a club level, the relevant club grades for 2010-11 will be:
Year 7 (CEJL / NHJCA) → Year 8 (CEJL / NHJCA) → Year 9 & 10 → Under 18
The major changes are:
Year 8 grades will run throughout the season, but will be split into two half-seasons and require teams to re-enter after Christmas. This is to take into account the fact that these players move onto secondary school in the second half of the season and will likely be playing secondary school cricket. Some may only want the one morning game (for their school); others may be drafted into the new Colts grade which runs on a Saturday afternoon (information on this further below). The half-season re-entry allows clubs to establish how many players they will have returning to play in the Year 8 grades and, if necessary, alter the number of teams they wish to re-enter. In the school competition period after Christmas these Year 8 grades will start at 1.45pm on a Saturday afternoon.
This is not really a change from previous seasons but we will be moving away from calling the post-Christmas grade an Under 14 grade and keep the terminology in terms of school years.
A new Year 9 & 10 grade will replace the Under 15 grade. Eligibility for this grade will be based on the player’s school year in the year in which the season starts, i.e. for the 2010-11 season, players must be in either Year 9 or Year 10 at school in 2010. It is felt that this change will broaden the pool of players clubs can draw upon for this grade and improve the strength of the competitions. Previously a Year 10 student who turned 15 before 1st September that season would have to play in the Under 18 grade.
This grade will also comprise two half seasons with entries called for again in January.
The Under 18 grade will continue to be based on the 1 September cut-off and operate as a full season grade.
Clubs should also be aware of the following points of note:
A new Auckland Secondary Schools Cricket Colts grade will be established from the start of the 2011 calendar year. The competition will involve 12 teams and most likely start on Saturday 6 February, 2011. It will mirror the format of the school Premier A, B & C competitions with games running from 12.30 – 6.30pm. The 12 teams will be finalized in the next two weeks and they will be locked in for two years as a trial period for this competition. I will advise which schools are involved as soon as possible.
All secondary school competitions will finish by the third weekend of November each year. This is a policy decision of the ASSCA Executive. For the 2010 calendar year school competitions finish on Saturday 20 November. After this date, club youth competitions can start at 12.30pm as opposed to the 1.45pm start when school cricket is in operation. Likewise, all secondary school competitions (except Premier and Colts) will start on or after the second weekend of February and so the 12.30pm club start time will be implemented after Christmas until this date.
In conjunction with a club-based working party, Auckland Cricket is looking at options of a ‘club of origin’ style competition outside of the school season that allows clubs to enter teams with players that, due to playing 1st XI or Colts cricket for their school, are unable to play for their club on a regular basis.
Auckland Cricket is also investigating ways to enhance communication between schools and clubs during the November – December period to ensure clubs are given early notice of the likely loss of youth players to school Premier or Colts teams from the start of the following calendar year.
Coming out of the discussions at the last junior chairs meeting, the initial rounds of the Under 18 club competition in November will likely be played in a Twenty20 format with games to start at 3pm.
Suggested changes for playing conditions at a youth level will be presented ahead of the next junior chairs meeting for comment. This meeting will likely be in late August (date tbc). A meeting of the Junior Cricket Advisory Group will be convened in August as well to discuss any changes to playing conditions for the Cricket Express Junior Leagues.
The weight of ball used for Year 8 / Under 14 grades has caused confusion in recent years. Typically at a Year 8 level and below a 142g ball is used. From Year 9 onwards a 156g ball is used. As the club season bridges two school years, players would sometimes be playing with a 156g ball for their secondary school in the morning and a 142g ball for their U14 club team in the afternoon in the second half of the summer. As such, Auckland Cricket changed the playing conditions for the U14 post-Christmas grade so that a 156g ball was used. There has been some comment around the difficulty of players adjusting to a different weight of ball mid-way through the summer with the suggestion that the best time for the re-adjustment should be in the off-season. As such, I will canvas the opinion of the ASSCA Executive to see whether the school grades for Year 9 (Junior A & B) play with a 142g ball in the first half of their school season (i.e. February – March) and then change to a 156g ball for the second half (October – November).
