ANZ Cricketer Selected To Play In New Zealand

ANZ Cricketer Selected To Play In New Zealand

Pastor Zekaria with ANZ Bank CEO David Dennis

Cook Islands Cricket has further extended its close partnership with Northern Districts Cricket by signing off on an agreement that will see the country’s top ANZ junior cricketers playing in major secondary school tournaments in New Zealand.

The first of the local players to benefit from this newly formed agreement is rising talent Pastor Zekaria. Zekaria plays his cricket for Titikaveka College and the men’s senior Titans team. Zekaria, a product of the ANZ junior cricket programme, makes history as the first overseas player to be selected to play in the New Zealand tournament and will turn out for the Poverty Bay Cricket team in Whangarei in 5 days time.

Zekaria who only started playing cricket two and a half years ago is excited about his upcoming experience “this is a big opportunity, it’s really great. I want to thank the (Titikaveka) club and my coach Hori for really supporting me and to David Dennis and his team at ANZ for introducing cricket in schools. This is a really good opportunity and I hope I learn a lot so that I can continue to work hard to represent the Cook Islands and maybe become a professional cricketer one day”.

Cook Islands Crickets CEO Alister Stevic highlighted the importance of the opportunity: "This is a significant step forward for the development of our players on the international stage, from my understanding there is no other opportunity like this afforded to any other Pacific Island countries. We are fortunate to have a passionate supporter of Cook Islands Cricket in Pat Malcon at Northern Districts Cricket who has worked hard with Poverty Bays Dave McDonald in assisting us provide such opportunities for aspiring junior Cook Islands cricketers."

Stevic continued on to praised the endless support the association has received from David Dennis and his staff at ANZ, “ANZ have invested significantly in our ANZ junior cricket programme, they have shared our vision from the outset, backed us all the way and have been passionate about the opportunities an involvement in cricket provides to the youth in the country. It is therefore fantastic to reward their support with this latest development and to share in Pastors success with ANZ, Pastor, his coaches, all the volunteers and all the school teachers involved in the ANZ junior development programme."

ANZ’s CEO David Dennis, was delighted with the latest development commenting: "This is a great opportunity for our country’s top cricketers to continue to develop their skills. We are very proud of the ANZ junior cricket program and are committed to making an ongoing contribution to the communities in which we operate. This program is just one way that we are demonstrating our commitment."