Northland student chuffed with new cricket gear sponsorship

Harrison Syers with the cricket gear he secured from ANZ which means players wouldn't need to spend money purchasing them. Photo / Tania Whyte

A Northland student's push to get more players into cricket received a shot in the arm, with a timely donation of new gear and balls for his school.

Harrison Syers, a Year 12 student at Huanui College in Whangārei, applied for and secured funding from ANZ under the bank's cricket grant programme worth $4500 that gives New Zealand cricket players, teams, schools and clubs the chance to apply for sponsorship.

"As we are a small school, we struggle for numbers for our cricket team, and I'm hoping the new gear will get new kids playing. We've already picked up three new team members for this season," he said.

Harrison Syers is a passionate cricketer who wants to get more Northlanders into the sport. Photo / Supplied

Syers has created a senior secondary schools competition with the aim of strengthening school cricket in Northland and said the grant meant players wouldn't need to spend lots of money purchasing their own gear.

However, the competition did not go ahead this year because schools found it hard to put together teams due to various factors.

"School cricket in Northland is not as strong as it once was. Cricket in this region has seen a decline in recent years with the loss of the Whangārei Boys' High School and Kamo High School 1st and 2nd XI teams from the Northland Cricket Competition.

"One of the key goals of the competition is to increase the participation of players that might otherwise be lost to the game due to the level of commitment required for traditional Saturday cricket."

Head of sponsorship at ANZ Sue McGregor said when the banks read Harrison's application and heard his story, it knew how much the new cricket gear would help him.