Williams return a boost for Northland on and off field

Ben Williams has made the most of his homecoming to Northland this season and hopes to take cricket back to the areas in the province where the game has ebbed away.
Williams has returned from Tauranga this season to take over the player-coach role at Whangarei Boys' High School and has enjoyed his cricket, displaying the kind of form that has made him one of the first picks for the Northland team.
The former Kaitaia College student is enjoying both his coaching and his playing role in his old stomping ground.
"That's been the cool thing for me playing back up here. It's been fun playing with and against guys that I played when I was younger and it's nice to be able to give back to the area that you started playing in," he said.
Williams has already proved himself to be a valuable boost for the student side. He scored a great 111 early to finish the Lion Red Comp with the fourth-highest batting average. He has impressed for Northland with the bat - scoring a great century in their recent crunch match against Hamilton - as well as the ball.
But it is his coaching that is the main reason for returning to Northland and the 28-year-old is keen to restore cricket to some of the areas where it has all but died out - like Kaitaia.
"It has died off a bit up there and I'd like to be involved with putting a new or different structure in place in the Far North to try and kick start the game," he said.
The game has suffered - proportionally more than others - by the increase in the number of people working on the weekend. The length of the game means that people often can no longer afford to spend most of Saturday playing.
"There hasn't been an organised competition up there for a good 20 years or so. I know they still play but there isn't the structure there that other areas have in Northland, especially in the area of youth cricket," he said.
Williams said the enthusiasm that the public has greeted Twenty20, the newest - and shortest - form of the game may be the best way to encourage local competition.
"People in the Far North also need to know that there are avenues open in cricket - if you can find someone to bring you down to Whangarei now and then, like my mum did with me - and you can still make a career out of cricket," he said.
Williams had to rely on the good nature of his parents to ferry him south so he could play age-group cricket for Northland but in the end it all worked out for him.
"I think the kids up there don't see any pathways, so they just flag it and get into other sports. So I've been thinking of doing a clinic or two up there or a couple of coaching days to try and get something going," he said.
After finishing school at Kaitaia College, Williams trained at the Northern Cricket Academy run by Brendon Bracewell in Tauranga.
"Then I got employed by Bay of Plenty cricket as one of the coaches for their summer squad and I started to play for Bay of Plenty - I did that from 2002 all the way through to last season and I was also the development officer for Bay of Plenty Cricket," he said.
Williams also set up his own coaching business down there over the last four years but was thrilled to move back north after being offered the job at WBHS.
"I'd always wanted to get back up home and have a few seasons finishing up my playing career, so the offer came at a good time for me," he said.
Williams has been included in the Northland 13 to play Counties Manukau in a one-day match at Cobham Oval tomorrow.
The side will be finalised tomorrow.
He will then rejoin Whangarei Boys' High School for the start of the premier grade two day club cricket competition.