The best young cricketers in the country converge on Darwin for the Top End Strike League

The best of Territory cricket and the most promising players from across the country will merge for what is guaranteed to be an epic Top End Strike League.

THE best of Territory cricket and the most promising players from across the country will merge for what is guaranteed to be an epic Top End Strike League.

The competition is the gold standard of Territory cricket with interstate players making the trip up to grow their skills in their normal off-season.

The CDU Strike League is part of the Cricket 365 program and this year will act as a six week prelude to the CDU Top End T20.

Four teams those being Southern Storm, Desert Blaze, Northern Tide and City Cyclones will be packed full of talent from both interstate and the Top End to bat and bowl it out for the 2022 crown.

The aim of Cricket 365 is to enhance the development of Territory players, coaches and match officials and showcase them in a series with national appeal.

Ash Chandrasinghe is no stranger to playing the game in the Top End having last year helped the Southern Storm to the Strike League crown.

This year he trades the purple for the City Cyclones green where he will partner with the likes of Liam Blackford and Tom Vane-Tempest.

“Last season was a success with a lot of quality players taking part, both local and interstate,” he said.

“It’s great to get this chance in the offseason to have a competitive series against the best players around Australia and see where you line up against them.

“We have a good mix of really good professional interstate players and some good local players as well so it should be good to see how the competition goes.”

It was that chance to measure his ability against some of the best up and comers in the country that had local player Michael Kudra so excited for the series.

The young wicketkeeper, from Southern Storm, kept his advice simple for players getting their first taste of cricket in the Top End.

Strike League players Southern Storm Michael Kudra, City Cyclones Ash Chandrasinghe, Desert Blaze Sam Rahaley and Northern Tide Nivethan Radhakrishnan. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

“Just hydrate as much as you can, it’s pretty similar except just drink more water and make sure you’ve prepared yourself,” Kudra said.

“I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can from these players, there’s some pretty big players coming up from around Australia so it’s about reading them and learning as much as I can.

“Keep your eye on the ball, there’s going to plenty of wickets and plenty of boundaries. There’s some real talent coming our way.”

Desert Blaze is one side containing plenty of firepower with eyes sure to be on the likes of Sam Rahaley and Max Bryant when they take the field.

It’s South Australian Rahaley’s second year playing in Darwin and he’s on the hunt to help his side earn that coveted title.

“It’s going to be hot, but it’s about acclimatizing as quick as you can within the first couple of weeks and from there just adapting to what works,” he said.

“We’re pretty strong, we have some big players such as Max Bryant and a couple of good, younger players so I think we will have a pretty strong, evenly spread out squad.”

Nivethan Radhakrishnan of Northern Tide has never played in the Top End before and for it’s a chance to get some playing time in during the Tasmanian preseason.

“To come here to nice weather and these outstanding facilities that will allow me to improve my skills in the offseason is great,” Radhakrishnan said.

“I’ve never been to Darwin before so I actually want to learn what this place is like and if I come away with some learnings I will be happy.

“Looking at my team I can confidently say we will do really well up here. We have some outstanding players’ skill wise and they seem to be really great blokes as well.”

Check out ntnews.com.au for the full list of players taking part in the series.

See all the players playing in the Strike League here.

Desert Blaze

Jayden Goodwin

Matt Calder

Tom Kelaart

Sam Rahaely

Druv Kant

Tom O’Connell

Corey Roccihiccolli

Harsh Brimbal

Charlie Kemp

Brodie Symons

Hanno Jacobs

Jaxon Treumer (12th man)

Southern Storm

Bailey Capel

Sam Fanning

Jack Clayton

Josh Kann

Bradley Hope

Mitchell Owen

Toby Grey

Awad Naqvi

Michael Kudra

Hamish Martin

Braden Tauber

Charlie Bignell (12th man)

Northern Tide

John Brown

Blake MacDonald

Antum Naqvi

Jake Frazer-McGurk

Raveesh Srivastava

Isaac Conway

Nivethan Radhakrishnan

James Bazely

Wes Agar

Charles Stobo

Tom Menzies

Sam Elder (12th man)

City Cyclones

Liam Blackford

Hugo Burdon

Tom Jackson

Jordan Buckingham

Reliey Brasher

Ash Chandrasinghe

Coby Edmonstone

Andrew Richards

Nic Wheeler

Caelan Maladay

Jayden Chatto (12th man)