To be fair, it would be great to see more Indigenous Australians involved in cricket, just as it would be to see more Maori - but here the game doesn't resonate with many Maori, and I'd hate to see quotas which I don't think are the answer - in fact, I don't think there's a problem - just good to see some indigenous players at the high levels
I honestly think that’s the future for NZ cricket… they need to somehow tap into that natural Maori/Pacific talent.
The Rugby codes and basketball dominate for that talent.
cost is usually the biggest issue… we played it as kids growing up but it just cost too much for a lot of kids to play for a club. I was lucky as my parents could afford a couple of hundred for a bat and some whites etc… but a lot of my friends couldn’t afford it so they just stuck with the footy codes.
I mean I remember playing in tge gillette cup and facing Ian Buttler who like less than 12 months later was bowling 150kms at international level… and he was told by their coach he wasn’t allowed to bowl bouncers as none of us could afford a f**king helmet…
but we’ve seen some Maori/PI talent start to come through in the last 10-15yrs…
Roscoe… I mean he would be up there as one of our best ever batsman… to have a Samoan kid do that is awesome.
Trent Boult also… he’s actually been doing a fair bit with NZC to bring young Maori through…
there’s been others too who had talent but didn’t kick on… Jessie Ryder had a shitload of potential.
Im actually interested to see if any Maori or PI kids will end up pushing through in Australia… with the number of Maori kids brought up in Australia you’d think they might have a few come through at some stage… which is also good for NZC as it gives kids something to look upto.
Hell there’s even a Maori playing in todays game… people often forget Ben Stokes is a proud Maori on his mums side.
I hope this Boland kid kills it!
