I said we would cover the Under 19 world tournament in the OP so here we go
Rising Domestic Stars Set for U19 World Cup
Posted
Saturday, 20 December, 2025 in International News
Five players with domestic caps have been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2026 ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup hosted by Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Otago opening batter Tom Jones will captain the 15-strong squad who depart for Africa on January 2.
Jones, who will be attending his second U19 Cricket World Cup, scored an impressive 119 on First Class debut for Otago last month.
Additional squad members with domestic experience are Northern Districts batter Snehith Reddy and wicketkeeper Aryan Mann, Otago fast bowler Mason Clarke, and Auckland bowling allrounder Jaskaran Sandhu.
Reddy and Clarke made their List A debuts earlier this year for their respective Major Associations and attended the last tournament in South Africa alongside Jones.
Reddy brought up the highest score of the tournament (147*) against Nepal, whilst Clarke took an impressive 4-62 against runners up India.
Seventeen-year-old batter Hugo Bogue has been selected fresh off an excellent display for Otago at the National Under-19 Men’s Tournament in Lincoln last week.
Bogue was the tournament’s third-highest run scorer averaging 72 with a high score of 169 against Northern Districts.
The youngster will be joined in the batting unit by Auckland trio Brandon Matzopoulous, Marco Alpe and Jacob Cotter who were the tournament’s fourth, fifth and sixth top run scorers, respectively.
The pace-bowling stocks will be bolstered by Northern Districts allrounders Harry Burns and Flynn Morey who each took a five-wicket haul at the tournament and ended up on 10 wickets overall.
Former BLACKCAP and Northern Districts stalwart Anton Devcich will head up the coaching unit, alongside NZC High Performance coaches Paul Wiseman and Graeme Aldridge.
New Zealand Squad - ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup
Tom Jones (C) Otago Cricket
Marco Alpe Auckland Cricket
Hugo Bogue Otago Cricket
Harry Burns Northern Districts
Mason Clarke Otago Cricket
Jacob Cotter Central Districts
Aryan Mann Northern Districts
Brandon Matzopoulos Auckland Cricket
Flynn Morey Northern Districts
Snehith Reddy Northern Districts
Callum Samson Canterbury Cricket
Jaskaran Sandhu Auckland Cricket
Selwin Sanjay Auckland Cricket
Hunter Shore Canterbury Cricket
Harry Waite Auckland Cricket
For players to be age eligible for the tournament they must be under 19 years of age on August 31 2026 and born after September 1 2006.
Head coach Devcich congratulated the squad.
“Huge congratulations to all of the boys who’ve been selected,” said Devcich.
“With such a talented pool of players there were some difficult selection calls, but we think we’ve landed the right balance.”
Devcich, who attended the Under-19 Cricket 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 squad will have a training camp in Bulawayo before the tournament’s warm-up period begins on January 9.
All New Zealand matches and the tournament finals will be broadcast live in on Sky Sport NZ, with live scoring available at nzc.nz and the NZC App.
New Zealand U19 Schedule at the ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2026
Queen’s Sports Club, Bulawayo
Match 1 - Sunday 18 January 8.30pm NZT - USA
Match 2 - Tuesday 20 January 8.30pm NZT - Bangladesh
Match 3 - Saturday 24 January 8.30pm NZT - India
Super Six - Pending above results
Semi-Final 1 - Tuesday 3 February 8.30pm NZT - Queen’s Sports Club
Semi-Final 2 - Wednesday 3 February 8.30pm NZT - Harare Sports Club
Final - Friday 6 February 8.30pm NZT - Harare Sports Club
Five players with domestic caps have been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2026 ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup hosted by Zimbabwe and Namibia.
www.nzc.nz
