The association announced its Hawke Cup team yesterday and it featured a good spread of players from Central Otago and South Otago.
But picking the top team has in some ways become easy with fewer people playing senior cricket. The sport has been in a slow decline for the best part of two decades.
The Otago Country Cricket Association - formerly the Central Otago Cricket Association - used to be made up of five sub associations. Maniototo, South Otago, East Otago, West Otago and the Vincent Cricket Association all ran healthy competitions.
The Maniototo competition, for example, was made up of teams from Patearoa, Oturehua, Gimmerburn, Ranfurly, Naseby and Macraes.
But that competition has completely disappeared. Maniototo merged with the Vincent Cricket Association in the 2013-14 season.
''They dropped by the wayside one after another. It used to be a really strong area for cricket,'' Jones said.
The East Otago competition has fallen away completely, while West Otago has a couple of teams competing in Eastern Southland.
South Otago has bucked the trend, though. Its senior ranks have grown from four teams last season to six teams this summer.
But the Vincent senior competition is still dropping teams. It is down from six last season to five.
The Dunstan Cricket Club turned 150 in 2013 but a lack of players meant it had to merge with the Alexandra Cricket Club in 2014 to form the Molyneux Cricket Club.
Molyneux has fielded a senior side in the Vincent cricket competition for the past two years but has been unable to get a senior team together and is the latest side to drop out.
The club has a senior reserve side and its junior club has ''about 100 members'', so there is still a good base to build from.
And the sums up where the sport is at in the region. The senior ranks have thinned considerably since the 90s. But on the back of the 2015 Cricket World Cup, the junior ranks are rebounding, Jones said.
''The growth in junior numbers in Queenstown, Wanaka and Cromwell has been sensational.''
The Otago Cricket Association set Otago Country the challenge of increasing its junior playing numbers by 20% last year.
''That seemed like a huge challenge but we achieved closer to 40%,'' Jones said.
The World Cup helped create a receptive environment for development officers Emma Campbell and Willie Miller. And the work they have put in promoting the game at the region's schools has paid off with Otago Country's junior player base swelling from 562 to 789 - an increase of 227 players.
But keeping the junior players involved once they reach secondary school and beyond is still an enormous challenge.
''Although a lot of kids leave the area when they go to high school, if things are done right, and I think we are heading in that direction, we should see a resurgence in the next five years with stronger [senior] numbers.''
Jones said the trick was to deliver a better experience for the juniors.
''If the experience they have is good one, then they are more likely to continue to play.''
