The 2020 Gillette Venus Cup is due to get underway on Friday 11th of December at Palmerston North’s Manawaroa Park.
The tournament brings together Year 9-13 female students from schools across New Zealand representing the six cricket Major Associations (MAs).
The Gillette Venus Cup will see all teams playing each other in T20 matches over three days, with the chance to compete in the finals on the last day. It’s a wonderful opportunity for these young female players to test themselves against some of the best up-and-coming cricketers from around the country.
This year will see some familiar schools at the Gillette Venus Cup, including regulars Christchurch Girls’ High School (Christchurch) and St Hilda’s Collegiate (Dunedin) who have been dominating the regional competitions in their MAs.
The return of Tauranga Girls High School (Tauranga) after a few years, will be an exciting step for these young players, some having never experienced a tournament of this scale.
Hutt Valley High School (Wellington) made their debut at the tournament last season and will be looking to put their best foot forward.
St Matthews Collegiate (Masterton), a strong cricketing school from the Wairarapa who also participated in the recent ANZ Junior Shield tournament will be looking to experienced captain Ocean Bartlett (Maori Secondary Schools) for guidance in what they hope to be a successful tournament.
Takapuna Grammar School (Auckland), who defeated power-house Epsom Girls’ Grammar School, will make their first appearance in this tournament.
Many great players have emerged from this tournament to higher honours, such as Amelia Kerr who represented Tawa College in recent years.
All fixtures are live scored on https://scoring.nzc.nz/ and on www.crichq.com
The New Zealand national cricket team, known as the Black Caps, made their Test debut in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth nation to play Test cricket. After waiting 26 years for their first Test win against the West Indies in 1956, they also played their first ODI in 1972–73 against Pakistan. New Zealand are the inaugural World Test Championship champions (2021) and have won the ICC Champions Trophy (2000). They have reached the Cricket World Cup final twice and the T20 World Cup final once.
