I get no more enjoyment out of writing about sport, than to see the development and progress of young talent. Five years ago when covering a Mid Northern secondary schools basketball tournament at QE2, I saw a young man who stood out from the rest because of his sheer size.

Enquiries told me that the six-foot-eight youngster was Alex Pledger from Hamilton Boys High School. The youngster's name came back to me at the weekend, when I was reading in one of the Sunday papers, of the emergence of a young Tall Black. Now 22 years of age, Pledger was the find of the recent Tall Blacks European tour and Oceania series victory over the enemy from across ‘the ditch'.
The trick in sport development is to turn promising talents into genuine international athletes. A young Western Bay cricket player is poised to make that transition in the near future.
Nineteen year old Kane Williamson is a prodigious cricket talent, who should become the region's latest Black Cap in the next couple of years; following in the footsteps Mathew and Robbie Hart and Daniel Flynn.
On his way to the fringe of Black Cap selection, Kane has posted several outstanding milestones. Captain of his country at the Under 19 World Cup and the only batsman to smash three centuries in the secondary school championship Gillette Cup Finals.
Kane earned a professional cricket contract with Northern Districts while still at Tauranga Boys' College. In his two seasons with the Northern Knights he has blasted centuries in both first class and one day matches.
The emergence of Kane and a number of other extremely promising young players, is the result of pathways put in place nearly a decade ago. BOP Cricket was the first cricket association in the country to take the sport into the school curriculum. In tandem with the BOP Cricket age group development program was the acceleration of the cricket pathway at Tauranga Boys College. The real deal for young cricket players at the college, is that there is cricket available for all levels of skill and enjoyment, with over a dozen sides in action each summer.
Kane is just one of a number of TBC students, who have made the transition to Bay of Plenty senior representative teams. Last year two TBC players wrote their names into the BOP Cricket history book, with blazing centuries on debut for the Bay.
There is no bigger challenge faced each season by the Bay senior men's team, than the annual encounter against archrivals Hamilton. Last season Tauranga Boys' Bharat Popli blasted 113 against the team from the other side of the Kaimais, then smashed a second century against Poverty Bay
Not to be outdone fellow TBC student, Mitch McCann blazed away to record an unbeaten 110 runs against Waikato Valley, in his Bay of Plenty Development team debut. There was even more celebration at Tauranga Boys' in February this year, when the first eleven annexed the Williams Cup, which is the symbol of Baywide premier cricket.
While we all like to celebrate the success of our country's elite athletes, such as the four rowing world titles at the weekend – I get a truckload of enjoyment from seeing youngsters tread the pathway to the top.