The state 12-and-under boys’ cricket team will be playing in School Sport Australia’s national championships at Cobram-Barooga on the NSW-Victoria border in January.

Coached by Clinton Reid, they will play five 50-over games throughout the week.

“It’s the second year we’ve taken a team to these championships,” Reid said. “We’ve brought this into our high performance pathway and it offers a great opportunity to learn about the game and competing at a national level at an early age which we think will benefit players going forward.”

The side includes four Northern players, Aidan O’Connor and Kaidyn Turner, of Riverside, Launceston’s Thomas Beaumont and Arie Schoenmaker, of Mowbray, plus North-West Coasters Ben Chaplin, of Latrobe, and Bradley O’Toole, of Sheffield.

It also includes seven players from the South.