Harry and Archie McDonald both represented Elite Cricket Academy in the U18s ICAL tournament in India last month
April was a big month of representative cricket for Gooloogong brothers, Harry and Archie McDonald.
The boys travelled to Bangalore in Southern India where they were both part of the Elite Cricket Academy, taking part in the annual U18s ICAL tournament.
The two week tournament is only in its second year, after the inaugural tournament was held in Delhi last April.
Elite Cricket was one of five Australian teams taking part along with two local Indian teams and a strong South African team that went on to win the tournament, defeating Kershler Cricket in the final.
The Elite Cricket team was highly competitive throughout the competition, securing two wins from eight matches played. Archie McDonald was the team’s leading wicket taker for the tournament and team captain Hugh Taylor from Bathurst, went on to be the team’s and tournament’s highest run scorer.
Elite Cricket is coached by former Australia off-spinner Jason Krejza with players coming from Sydney and the Southern Highlands along with a few country based players.
The touring teams were all based in the same hotel in Bangalore and played their matches on quality grounds at various locations around the city.
One of the highlights of the trip for both players and parents, was to witness Travis Head hit a 39 ball century at the IPL match between the local RCB team lead by Virat Kholi and SRH led by Pat Cummins.
Back in March this year, Harry, who is a Year 9 student at Red Bend Catholic College (Forbes) made the NSW CCC U15s team and participated in the NSW All Schools Carnival. The All Schools carnival is made up of four selected teams representing Public, Catholic and Independent schools across NSW.
The two day carnival was a chance for the 48 players from various schools to showcase their talent in a three match format over two days of competitive cricket at the prestigious Bankstown Oval.