At a national level, NZC deliver a number of National Community Tournaments each season.
Major Associations and District Associations also deliver a significant number of tournaments and festivals throughout the cricket season. Keen for your club or school team to be involved?
Connect with your local Association for more details
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Venus Cup
Date: 19th - 21st December 2024
Location: NZC High Performance Centre, Lincoln, Canterbury
2023 champion: St Matthew's Collegiate School for Girls, Masterton
The Gillette Venus Cup is the national secondary school competition for secondary school girls.
Regional qualifying tournaments and finals are held by each Major Association across New Zealand, with one team from each Major Association qualifying for the Gillette Venus Cup final - held annually in December in Lincoln.
The national finals consist of Twenty20 cricket, played in a round robin format.
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Gillette Cup
Date: 11th - 16th December 2024
Location: NZC High Performance Centre, Lincoln, Canterbury
2023 Champion: Christchurch Boys' High School
The Gillette Cup is the national secondary school competition for secondary school boys.
Regional qualifying tournaments and finals are held by each Major Association across New Zealand, with one team from each Major Association qualifying for the Gillette Venus finals, held in December in Lincoln.
The national finals consist of one-day cricket, played in a round robin format.
Christchurch Boys' HS (Canterbury) went unbeaten to win the 2023 tournament:
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Junior Secondary School Boys
Date: 18-22 March 2024
Location: Fitzherbert and Manawaroa Parks, Palmerston North
The Junior Secondary School Boys' competition is a secondary school competition for Year 9 and 10 boys. Participants compete as Year 9 during the first stage of the competition (term four, October to December) and then as Year 9 and 10 during the second stage of the competition (term one of the following year, January to March).
The national finals consist of 40-over cricket matches, played in a round robin format.
Auckland Grammar School emerged victorious at the 2023 tournament.
Hawke Cup
The Hawke Cup is the major competition for male District Associations teams across New Zealand. The competition is split into four regional zones. These are:
- Zone One Hamilton, Northland, Counties-Manukau, Bay of Plenty, Poverty Bay, Waikato Valley
- Zone Two Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, Whanganui, Horowhenua-Kāpiti, Manawatū, Taranaki
- Zone Three Canterbury Country, Marlborough, Nelson, Buller (also: West Coast)
- Zone Four Otago Country, North Otago, Southland, South Canterbury, Mid-Canterbury
Within each zone, a full round robin is played, with games (other than Zone 3 Finals) typically contested over two days
Each zone’s regional winner then gets a three-day Hawke Cup Challenge against the current Holders
To win the Hawke Cup, Challengers must beat the Holders on their home ground, either outright or on the first innings
The Hawke Cup has been contested since the 1910/11 season, making it one of the oldest sporting trophies in New Zealand!
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Māori Secondary Schools
Date: 31 January - 2 February 2024
Venue: Tāmaki Makaurau
Established in 2017, the Māori Secondary Schoolboy and Schoolgirl sides are designed for secondary school cricketers of Māori whakapapa to represent their whānau, hāpu, iwi, and kura.
In 2022/23, the inaugural Rangatahi Cricket Festival was hosted in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland between Māori Secondary Schools and Pasifika Secondary Schools.
The second iteration of the Rangatahi Cricket Festival was held in Tāmaki Makaurau from 31st January to 2 February 2024.
For more information, visit our Māori Cricket page
Māori Tane National Tournament
Next tournament: 2024/25 season
Venue: Venue TBC
The inaugural National Māori Tane Tournament was held in Whangārei over Easter weekend, 7 to 9 April, 2023, featuring New Zealand's finest Māori cricket players.
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland lifted the inaugural title.
The five sides that compete in this tournament are: Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland (Auckland Cricket Association), McCaw Lewis Northern Districts Māori (Northern Districts), Central Districts Māori (Central Districts), Te Whanganui-a-tara (Wellington), and Te Waipounamu (South Island, combining the catchments of the Canterbury and Otago Cricket Associations, and not including CD's South Island District Associations).
Māori Wāhine National Tournament
Date: 13 - 15 October, 2023
Venue: Cornwall Park, Hastings
Following the success of the Māori Men’s National Tournament in 2023, an inaugural Wāhine Māori National Tournament was held in Hastings later in the same year, at the start of the following season.
The women’s tournament was hosted at Cornwall Park, Hastings, from October 13-15 2023, featuring five teams from across the motu - each playing four T20 games.
For more information, click here.
For further information on Māori Cricket, please contact Andrew Tara, NZC Kaupapa Māori, Diversity & Inclusion Lead: andrew.tara@nzc.nz
Heathcote Williams Shield
Shield Holders: Christ's College, Canterbury (2023/24)
The Heathcote Williams Shield (HWS) is a longstanding secondary school challenge shield that was presented to the New Zealand Cricket Council in 1908, to contested by all the secondary schools of New Zealand.
The HWS is now played between New Zealand-based secondary school 1st XIs only.
To win the trophy, the challenger must beat the holder outright at the holder's home ground, or designated home ground.
