Trio’s U19 selection bodes well for Volts

Three Otago rising stars have been awarded national honours — and one has been highlighted as a leader of the future.

If Tom Jones, Hugo Bogue and Mason Clarke continue on this path, the Volts can look forward to some bright years ahead.

All three have been named to represent New Zealand at the ICC Under-19 World Cup in Zimbabwe and Namibia early next year.

Jones will captain a squad containing five players who have already represented their respective provinces at senior domestic level.

Jones, who will be attending his second world tournament, is one of those players.

The grandson of former Black Caps captain Jeremy Coney made a stunning start to his first-class career with 119 opening the batting on debut for Otago last month.

Fast bowler Clarke made his List A debut for Otago last summer and also attended the last under-19 tournament, in South Africa, grabbing a four-wicket bag against runners-up India.

Bogue, a Queenstowner like Clarke, has just finished his schooling at Wakatipu High School and is selected after starring for Otago at the national under-19 tournament at Lincoln.

He was the tournament’s third-highest scorer, averaging 72 with a high score of 169 against Northern Districts.

It followed back-to-back centuries for Albion in the Dunedin premier club competition.

Clarke said he was "stoked" to make the New Zealand under-19 team again — "and even probably more stoked to have Hugo coming with me".

"We’ve grown up training together, and coming from Queenstown ... I think it really shows the strength of the club and the community that supports us," he told Mountain Scene.

Clarke was the youngest member of the squad last year, when the New Zealanders won two of their three pool games but won just one of their four games in the second stage to finish 10th.

"The one thing I learnt is there’s just a whole lot of white noise around, like with everyone watching, so I think for me it’s just about this time trying to focus on what I need to do and what really matters."

The other New Zealand squad members with domestic experience are Northern Districts batter Snehith Reddy and wicketkeeper Aryan Mann, and Auckland bowling all-rounder Jaskaran Sandhu.

Reddy also attended the last tournament in South Africa, thrashing an unbeaten 147 against Nepal.

Auckland trio Brandon Matzopoulos, Marco Alpe and Jacob Cotter are batters of promise, while Northern Districts all-rounders Harry Burns and Flynn Morey each took five-wicket hauls at the national under-19 tournament.

Former Black Caps batter and Northern Districts stalwart Anton Devcich is the head coach, supported by NZC high performance coaches Paul Wiseman and Graeme Aldridge.

"With such a talented pool of players, there were some difficult selection calls, but we think we’ve landed the right balance," Devcich said.

Devcich, who attended the Under-19 World Cup in 2004, said the tournament offered players an insight into cricket at the top level.

"The Under-19 World Cup is a really exciting opportunity for the best age-group talent to showcase their skills on the world stage and experience their first taste of international cricket.

"For most of the players, it’ll be their first time representing New Zealand, which will be a special moment for both players and coaches."

The young New Zealanders have a training camp in Bulawayo before the tournament’s warm-up period begins on January 9.

Their first World Cup game is against the United States on January 18, followed by pool games against Bangladesh and India.

NZ U19

The squad

Tom Jones (captain), Hugo Bogue, Mason Clarke (all Otago), Marco Alpe, Jaskaran Sandhu, Selwin Sanjay, Brandon Matzopoulos, Harry Waite (Auckland), Harry Burns, Aryan Mann, Flynn Morey, Snehith Reddy (Northern Districts), Jacob Cotter (Central Districts), Callum Samson, Hunter Shore (Canterbury).