Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

One word that Sideline Sid bangs on about a lot is pathways. Looking up the word path in the Oxford Mini Dictionary, reveals the definitions of the way that people pass on foot; line which a person or thing moves; course of action.

The multitude of international sporting success that our beautiful nation at the bottom of the world enjoys is very much built on the various Kiwi sporting codes taking a course of action to develop their individual sports, which becomes a sporting pathway to success.

On my way to calling into the Bay of Plenty Cricket Office at the Bay Oval Pavilion last week, I noticed three groups of youngsters undertaking football, cricket and rugby drills on Blake Park.

A little investigation revealed that the year five-to-eight primary and intermediate pupils were taking part in the Sport BOP Future Champions program.

Up to twenty cricket-mad youngsters were selected to participate in the 2015 Future Champions each day, over the three days of the cricket program.

All the selected young cricket players had gone through the process of applying in writing, to Bay of Plenty Cricket, to state why they should be selected in the program.

Each day kicked off with the group coming together to outline the day and hear about the Bay of Plenty Cricket pathway, from where current Black Caps Kane Williamson and Trent Boult have made their way to national selection.

A morning skills and coaching session was followed by a game in the afternoon.

Wandering down on to the Bay Oval to watch some of the morning training session was one of the best recent examples of the Bay of Plenty Cricket pathway delivering the skills session.

Current Northern Knight and Bay of Plenty representative batsman Bharat Popli was running the potential cricket stars of the future through a set of drills.

Bharat made a real impression from his first game in the Bay of Plenty uniform. He blasted a century on his debut against ND heavyweights Hamilton in a two-day match in December 2008, after earning selection from the ranks of the Tauranga Boys College First XI.

Since his auspicious debut, the Bay of Plenty master blaster has gone on to smash numerous Bay of Plenty Cricket records.

Seven centuries headline his Bay cricket achievements, which put him well ahead of the previous joint record holders of four three figure scores in the Bay of Plenty uniform.

Richard Shrimpton, Mike Wright and Mathew Hart's feats of four tons were overtaken by the Bay master blaster two season ago, with Bharat posting an unbeaten 103 against Poverty Bay just a couple of weeks ago, to bring up his seventh Bay of Plenty century.

In just seven seasons, he has climbed to third place on the all-time list of batting performances with 2491 runs, behind Mike Wright (3950) and Derek Beard (2843).

To put Bharat's near three thousand runs in perspective, both the two Bay of Plenty cricket legends played over 100 games for Bay of Plenty, over 20 year periods.

If some of the near 60-odd youngsters who took part in the three days of the Future Champions tuition go close to achieving the feats of the Bay master blaster, Bay of Plenty Cricket will be well served in the playing ranks for many years to come.