Katikati continues to grow in sporting strength. After the success of its senior men's rugby side, Katikati Cricket now has the benefit of the Earl brothers returning to the fray.

Matt Earl played for Waikato Valley and before that Greerton. He was a big loss for the yellow and blacks at the time.
Richie Earl was Katikati's fullback in their season winning rugby championship. He has also decided to leave Greerton after many years with the club and head up the motorway. Greerton will sorely miss him this year, both for his batting, leg spin bowling and general aggression on the field.
He sees great potential for cricket in his area and says, "Katikati cricket is getting much stronger and we could be a Bay premier side in 3 or 4 years.”
One major benefit for Katikati is that there are no other premier sides between Katikati and Tauranga Domain. This means players from Te Puna, Bethlehem and Otumoetai would have a choice for their premier club apart from Cadets. Some Katikati players could actually train in town.
This happens in other major sporting centres. North Shore cricket are based at their beautiful Devonport ground on the North Shore but train in Auckland city as most players work in Auckland's CBD.
Glenmark rugby from North Canterbury (Deans, Wyllie, Blackadder) train in Christchurch city once a week to accommodate players in town.
The other club in the Western Bay, which could easily grow in strength and size, is Papamoa. At present they are a bunch of good mates who play in second grade.
However, all it would take to become similar to the mount or Te Puke would be one really strong administrator. The population is moving their way; they have the facilities at Gordon Spratt and will have Papamoa High around the corner on Tara Road.

On the international front; a superb effort by Dan Vettori with his 140 vs Sri Lanka. Dan has worked very hard at improving his batting over the years. For the other guys it has been a pretty tough tour. Sri Lanka are a very powerful side at home. It is like playing the Springboks in Pretoria each week. They know their conditions so well.
Different to other international sides Sri Lanka actually base themselves in one city all the time. The team live and train in Colombo. This means the players train against test quality all the time which is always a benefit. I don't think this would work in NZ though. Where would the team be based – Darwin (training outside)? Where would the wives stay? Would NZ players travel the night before to play for ND or Auckland?
One of the keys for any top batsman is facing high quality bowling to replicate a match situation. Maybe Sri Lanka's batsmen have attained an edge through training against their test attack constantly? Or could it be our bowlers just lacked penetration on their wickets?