THE town of Hamilton will be buzzing with cricketers this week as it hosts the Under-16 Boys Youth Premier League (YPL) cricket carnival.

This carnival was given to Hamilton by Cricket Victoria following last season’s successful Under-17 and Under-19 series against South Australia which were hosted at Monivae College, Dunkeld Turf and Melville Oval.

Games will be played at Monivae College, Melville Oval, Kennedy Oval and College Turf until Thursday after play started yesterday.

The YPL carnival includes eight regions, four metro-based teams and four country teams with players to be accommodated at Monivae College and The Hamilton and Alexandra College (THAC).

Hamilton and District Cricket Association (HDCA) president, Lloyd Ilett said it was great to play host to the crop of talented young cricketers and use a variety of venues around town.

“We’re excited and thrilled that Cricket Victoria has deemed our facilities here of a high enough standard to host the competition,” Ilett said.

“It has taken a lot of hard work from a number of clubs across the association who worked hard to upgrade the facilities and get the grounds in good condition to use.

Ilett said it had been over a decade since Hamilton hosted a series of cricket state titles and thanked the many people who put so much time into making it happen over the years.

“Last year we had the Under-16s cross border competition, and it was an outstanding success, that leads to the YPL, it is the second time we’ve had state titles (with) the first one being 16 years ago or longer when we had 18s here,” he said.

“(The reward of hosting state titles stems) from a number of years, 25 years of hard work from people across the region, former regional cricket managers, Stephen Field and Tony Caccaviello have done a great job not only getting the hub together but helping clubs upgrade facilities through different grants.

“We are looking forward to bigger and better things, Pigeon Ponds, Hamilton, Casterton and Macarthur are all looking at upgrading their facilities, it’s happening all around.”

“The facilities in the HDCA are now obviously very high standard, otherwise Cricket Victoria wouldn’t bring out these types of carnivals.”

There are two local players in action for the Western Waves team, College duo, Henry Bensch and Jack Austin, who have been performing well for the side.

Bensch is the captain of the team, while Austin is the wicketkeeper and after starting the series 2-0, the confidence was up in the Waves camp.

“If I put my Waves president cap on, we are very excited about the way the Waves are playing at the moment, 2-0 and defended 107 last week which was outstanding,” Ilett said.

“I’m just hoping the batsmen can put a few more runs on the board today.”

Ilett said the long-term goal for the HDCA was to host the Australian Country Cricket Championships in the Association with both senior women and men’s competitions.

“As far as the YPL and interstate carnivals, the more we host the better we get at it, a lot of work has gone in from College Cricket Club, St Andrews Cricket Club, Hamilton Cricket Club and Jim Bailey at Monivae College,” he said.

“You are seeing the best cricketers from the state and these young players within 10 years could be grazing our test team … it is going to surprise a lot of people how talented these players are.”