The domestic cricket summer starts in a week with Ford Trophy sparking up the action. Every team has high quality young cricketers with fresh Blackcaps likely to start the season in domestic cricket and a wave of lads who will soon elevate to the Blackcaps mix. Here are some basic notes for each team and their best emerging players who will probably be involved for the first round of Ford Trophy...

Auckland

Adithya Ashok was the best player overall for NZ-A this year and an all-format leggy who will likely lead the spinny stuff for Auckland. Dale Phillips, Simon Keene and Jock McKenzie are top of mind for Auckland as well. Phillips returns to Auckland and after showing his class for NZ-A, Phillips is emerging as another top-order batter who could enter the Blackcaps equation with lots of runs this summer.

Keene smashed boundaries for NZ-A in South Africa and along with McKenzie, they are two genuine all-rounders in the seam department. Keene scores quicker than McKenzie but the latter has shown craft in all formats with the bat and played 11 of the 12 Ford Trophy games for Auckland last season. McKenzie is the better bowler right now so there is a nifty overlap in how these two all-rounders usually operate.

Lachlan Stackpole also made an impact last season with his powerful strokes and could be a second spin option behind Ashok. The lefty has a one-day record of 37.5avg/95sr after five innings and his two List-A 50+ scores came in consecutive Ford Trophy finals games last season.

Northern Districts

Matt Fisher made Test debut in Zimbabwe and now he gets to settle back with ND. His best formats at First-Class and LA so it will interesting to see how he builds on his Test debut, which was followed by NZ-A mahi in South Africa. Kristian Clarke was twice as busy as Fisher in Ford Trophy last season though and has the same LA bowling average of 26 as Fisher, plus he was one of the best players for NZ-A on their tour of Bangladesh earlier in the year.

As older seamers bow out, Fisher and Clarke will take on more responsibility with the ball. Tim Pringle returns to the ND mixer and he could emerge as their best spinner this summer, having already played a bunch of international cricket for Netherlands. A lefty tweaker, Pringle's best format is T20 and his LA average of 47.6 will probably drop if he gets regular game time to start the summer.

Ben Pomare is a sneaky wicket-keeping contender behind Mitch Hay and Max Chu. He hit his first 50+ knock in Ford Trophy last summer and Pomare also added valuable runs down the order in ND's Plunket Shield championship. While a few notches below Hay and Chu, Pomare has the potential to quickly climb up the depth chart in this role.

Central Districts

Curtis Heaphy is 22-year-old averaging 50.5 in List-A batting ... as well as 42.3 in First-Class. He was the leading run-scorer in Ford Trophy last summer and was then both tours for NZ-A, with a stint in the Global Super League in between. Heaphy played all three formats across three different continents and had scores of 71, 50*, 35, 30*, 32, 36, 190 and 13*.

While Heaphy isn't quite at the Rhys Mariu tier of FC batting and he hasn't commanded Blackcaps opportunities like Muhammad Abbas, he is far closer to these lads than many would expect. He played a sneaky role in CD's Super Smash championship and averages 30.9 in T20 batting for some extra flavour sprinkled on top.

Will Clark will be eager to settle as the leading all-rounder for CD in each format this season, while seamer Toby Findlay's 100+ averages in FC and LA bowling will be falling quickly if he gets a crack early in the season. Findlay is one of the better young seamers many don't know about and his 9w @ 19avg in T20 bowling mostly came during CD's championship run.

Jayden Lennox and Angus Schaw aren't youngsters but they do have enticing potential. Lennox was part of both NZ-A tours this year and had his best season overall last summer as an crafty lefty spinner. Schaw has more all-round ability with his offies overshadowed by his funky hitting ability that has seen him gather a T20 strike-rate of 164 after seven innings. Ajaz Patel will be factor for CD in all formats this summer but the Stags could roll with these three in the same team.

Wellington

Muhammad Abbas already has 104 runs @ 101sr in his three ODIs before finishing his NZ-A mahi for the year with scores of 66, 40 and 47. Abbas was Wellington's leading run-scorer in Ford Trophy last year and his workloads as a lefty seamer are also fun to track, especially with Jesse Tashkoff offering the same all-round ability as a spinner.

Tashkoff was one of three Wellington batters to hit a Ford Trophy century last season with Abbas and Nick Kelly, but he only played half of the one-day competition. He has quietly started his LA career with 45.8avg/104sr and finished the season in sizzling form with two 50+ scores and a century in his last three games of Plunket Shield.

Nathan Smith could play if he's healthy after batting injury during the tour of Zimbabwe and he did typical Smith stuff by averaging in the early 20s for bat and ball during his limited dose of Ford Trophy last summer. Callum McLachlan and Gareth Severin are talented players for Wellington who didn't score many Ford Trophy runs last season and have the ability to command 1st 11 nods.

Canterbury

Rhys Mariu is the obvious bloke for Canterbury but I’m eager to see how Mitch Hay builds on his development mahi this year. Hay could be in the Blackcaps ODI mix against England and that wouldn't be a shock given his record of 41.5avg/104sr after five ODI innings, otherwise he will be part of Canterbury's Ford Trophy unit.

Canterbury are defending champions in this format and while Hay averaged 25.6 in that campaign, he was the only Cantab who had three 50+ scores. Add in Mariu's two 50+ knocks and these two emerging talents were joined by Cole McConchie as the only Canterbury batters who had at least two 50+ scores last season.

Two other young batters in Matthew Boyle and Scott Janett hit centuries in Ford Trophy last season, something that Hay and Mariu didn't do. They also averaged 30+ and the Hay/Mariu didn't do that either, but Hay and Mariu both have 50+ scores in ODI cricket already.

Zak Foulkes was the leading wicket-taker for Canterbury's championship run, as well as avearging 28.8 with the bat. Foulkes was the best batter for NZ-A for their one-day series in South Africa and that takes his LA batting average up to 25.7. Something funky to watch out for with Foulkes is if he can get all his batting averages over 20 to link up with bowling averages that are all below 30 - something that Nathan Smith could do soon as well.

Foulkes may not be in the mix if he stays in the Blackcaps tier, but never fear there is another Darfield doozy on the rise in Cameron Paul who has the same all-rounder package as Foulkes. Paul only played one Ford Trophy game last season and he should get a chance early this season to add to his 5w @ 14.8avg/4.3rpo in LA bowling, which looks lovely with his FC bowling record of 18w @ 21.5avg/4rpo after eight innings.

Paul took at least a wicket in five consecutive innings to finish the season and while he doesn't have notable runs yet, he has flashed the same gritty batting ability as Foulkes with 17.2avg and two 20+ scores in his first five innings of Plunket Shield batting. Matt Rowe could also be a factor after making his Ford Trophy debut last season and along with Paul, these two are high quality young seamers to pay attention to.

Otago

Max Chu can rise up and put pressure on Hay this summer. Last season was Chu’s best in each format with his first 50+ knocks in Ford Trophy and Super Smash, as well as his first season averaging 40+ in Plunket Shield. He will continue to grow into an Otago leader and that is amplified by the departures of Dale Phillips and Dean Foxcroft, leaving Chu and Luke Georgeson as young leaders to watch out for.

Chu casually scored 290 runs @ 109sr in Ford Trophy last summer. Despite playing just five games, Georgeson showed his talent by averaging 35 with the bat and 19 with the ball. Add in Leo Carter's departure and Otago have batting spots up for grabs that should benefit Georgeson, as well as Llew Johnson who hit his first Ford Trophy century last season.

That was Johnson's best summer across all three formats, which is notable because he's progressed from an exciting T20 hitter to demanding Plunket Shield selection. Otago also have Thorn Parkes and Jamal Todd in their batting unit and despite averaging 19 in Ford Trophy last season, Parkes is still cruising along at 37.6avg in LA batting.

Mason Clarke made his domestic cricket debut as a 17-year-old seamer last summer and he will be hunting his first game of Plunket Shield later in the season. Clarke did play two games of Ford Trophy to go with his five games of Super Smash but he didn't take a wicket in the one-dayers, so it will be interesting to see what role he plays in Ford Trophy to start this season.

All of which has been covered in the yarns below…

New Zealand's 10 Best Young Cricketers After The Summer Of 2024/25

2025 New Zealand A Tour Of Bangladesh Debrief

2025 New Zealand A Tour Of South Africa Debrief

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