Top of the class
The national secondary schools championships has always been a breeding ground for young talent, none more so than 10 years ago. reports.
What a year 2007 was for schoolboy cricketers. The national secondary schools first XI cricket final is on in Palmerston North this week, returning after five years, and is where the best young cricketers are on display.
If you look at the tournament team from 10 years ago, it turned out to be a stellar team.
Of the 13 players, only four didn’t go on to play first-class cricket. One of those is Tyler Bleyendaal, who played for the Crusaders and is now playing professional rugby in Ireland.
There are four players in the group who have played for New Zealand, including now Black Caps captain Kane Williamson.
Christchurch Boys’ High School won the title that year and was their third win in a row, having shared it with King’s College the year before and with Tauranga Boys’ College in 2005.
Also playing at that tournament who are on the first-class scene include Michael Bracewell (Kavanagh College), Brett Hampton (Hamilton Boys’ High School), Adam Milne and Dane Cleaver (both Palmerston North Boys’ High School).
It begs the question: who will be the stars out of this year’s crop of players? Let’s take a look at that stellar year in 2007:
Kane Williamson (Tauranga Boys’ College)
Starting off with the biggest name, Williamson is now captain of the Black Caps.
Williamson, 27, was a schoolboy star and is an even bigger one as an adult. He has played 62 tests, is averaging more than 50 and is on track to set the record for most centuries for New Zealand.
Williamson was always destined to play for New Zealand and has been captain since 2016. He has played for the New Zealand under-19s, Northern Districts, county cricket and in the Indian Premier League.
He scored a century in the last game at the schools finals to beat Palmerston North Boys’ High School and finish third.
Tom Latham (Christchurch Boys’ High School)
Latham is another to have gone on to play for New Zealand. The wicketkeeper batsman played for the New Zealand under-19s and long played for Canterbury.
Latham has forged a solid record as a test opener and more recently made a place for himself in the one-day team.
At 25, Latham has scored six test centuries, joint 12th on New Zealand’s all-time list.
Alex Rowe (Christchurch Boys’ High School)
Alex Rowe was a left-arm swing bowler and is now living in France.
The 28-year-old has recently been travelling but is now in Europe and not playing cricket. After he left school he played rep cricket for Canterbury Country, as well as club cricket for Sefton in north Canterbury.
Declan McKeefry (Wanganui Collegiate School)
Wanganui Collegiate School batsman Declan McKeefry is now an investment analyst in Wellington. The 26-year-old played club cricket for Onslow, but stopped three seasons ago.
He joked he was ‘‘dragging the chain’’ compared with the other cricketers in the team and he recalls Christchurch being particularly strong that year.
Alex MacDuff (Westlake Boys’ High School)
MacDuff has been working as a lawyer in Auckland for the past four years, but played for the Auckland under-19s and A side.
The 27-year-old all-rounder was playing club cricket for North Shore, but seriously broke his leg a couple of years ago playing football and then stopped playing cricket.
‘‘We knew back then at least with a number of them, with Kane in particular, he was going to play for the Black Caps at some stage.’’
Bevan Small (Palmerston North Boys’ High School)
Small was a dominant schoolboy fast bowler and is still doing the same thing, now for Central Districts.
The 25-year-old Small has had an injury-interrupted career, but was in the New Zealand under-19s has still been part of the CD setup for the past six and a half years.
Harry Boam (Wellington College)
Wellington College all-rounder Harry Boam was a New Zealand under-19 cricketer and played firstclass cricket for Wellington while still at school.
He played five seasons of firstclass cricket, but took a year out of the game after the 2012-13 season and then retired indefinitely.
Boam, now 27, was coaching his old school’s first XI, but resigned earlier this year.
Tyler Bleyendaal (Christchurch Boys’ High School)
Bleyendaal was an impressive schoolboy all-rounder, but chose rugby as his career path.
Bleyendaal, 27, is a gun rugby first five-eighth and was captain of the New Zealand under-20s.
He played four years for Canterbury, three for the Crusaders and has been playing for Munster in Ireland since 2015.
Nick Beard (Kavanagh College)
Beard went on to play eight seasons of first-class cricket for Otago as a left-arm spinner from 2009 to 2015.
Beard started working in real estate while he took time off from cricket to work on his bowling action and despite being cleared to bowl, he gave the game away.
He is now a real estate agent for Dunedin company Cutlers.
George Worker (Palmerston North Boys’ High School)
Worker is another to have played for New Zealand. Worker has been one of the top domestic batsman in the past couple of seasons and forced his way in to the Black Caps limited overs side.
Worker, who also offers leftarm off-spin, represented CD as an 18-year-old and has been a fixture on the first-class scene since, having had a three-year stint at Canterbury too.
He also played three one-day games for Scotland against English counties in 2011.
Another New Zealand under-19 player, he was used as cover for the unavailable Tim Southee for the Black Caps test against the West Indies last week.
Craig Cachopa (Westlake Boys’ High School)
The 25-year-old Cachopa is relatively well travelled, having played for Wellington, Auckland and Sussex, but is a fixture in the Auckland middle order now.
The South African-born batsman is another former New Zealand under-19 player.
His older brothers Brad and Carl also played domestic cricket.
Anurag Verma (Hamilton Boys’ High School)
The seam bowler played a handful of games for Northern Districts, but joined Wellington in 2015, where he has become a more regular player.
Another New Zealand under-19 player, he has impressed in the white-ball format recently.
Corey Anderson (Christchurch Boys’ High School)
Anderson was playing first-class cricket not long after the national schools competition, having debuted for Canterbury later that month aged 16.
The powerful all-rounder has had injury problems in his career, and has been in and out of the New Zealand team since his international debut in 2013.
At one point he held the record for fastest one-day international century.
He shifted associations to ND, but has also played for the Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians, New Zealand A and New Zealand under19s.