In his second trip to the tournament, Auckland’s Robert O’Donnell will lead a 15 man New Zealand squad to the ICC Under-19 World Cup in United Arab Emirates.
The team will depart New Zealand shores for the tournament on February 7 and play two warm-up games prior to the start of the round-robin, facing the West Indies on 10 February and Canada on 12 February. Following this they’ll face fellow Pool D opponents Sri Lanka, UAE and England, before either progressing onto the quarter-finals of the main competition or entering the Plate competition.
The squad is made up of four representatives each from Auckland and Canterbury, three from Northern Districts, two from Otago and one apiece from Central Districts and Wellington.
New Zealand Under-19 World Cup Squad:
Robert O’Donnell (Auckland) (c)
Jeremy Benton (Canterbury)
Leo Carter (Canterbury)
Henry Collier (Central Districts)
Josh Finnie (Otago)
Shawn Hicks (Auckland)
Jack Hunter (Otago)
Kyle Jamieson (Canterbury)
Ken McClure (Canterbury)
Brett Randell (Auckland)
Tim Seifert (Northern Districts)
Dane Watson (Auckland)
Kurtley Watson (Northern Districts)
Luke Williamson (Northern Districts)
Rakitha Weerasundara (Wellington)
New Zealand Under-19 Coach Grant Bradburn said the players have worked extremely hard in their preparations and each one of them has warranted their place in the squad.
“We’re confident in the team we’ve selected and believe that they have the ability to do something special in UAE. These players are the future of our sport and they recognise the responsibility that comes with that.
The strides they’ve made over the past 12 months have been really pleasing and they can take real confidence from that growth. The tournament will be hugely valuable in terms of continuing that growth going forward – in saying that, we’re certainly going there to try and win it and I believe we have a good chance.”
