Closer links have been forged between the Canterbury Cricket Association and the Canterbury Junior Cricket Association.

Wednesday night's Canterbury Cricket Association (CCA) board meeting agreed to formalise the relationship between the two bodies. The immediate effect of it will be that the weekly draw for children's games will be made by the CCA along with the ground allocation for matches.

CCA chief executive Tony Murdoch said: "The CCA board initiated discussions on how best to promote the game in Canterbury.

"The CCA was seen as the headquarters of the game in Canterbury but there were various times when we couldn't respond to inquiries made of us about junior cricket matters. These were most often on Fridays when parents would ring to see if games were still on the next day, or for advice on where children could play cricket.

"It was run of the mill inquiries that we couldn't help with.

"We did seek sponsorship on their behalf and help them with coaching.

"But with the advent of the CCA cricket development programme and the link to CricInfo we saw significant advantages to junior cricket in coming together with us," he said.

Secondary schools came under the CCA wing in 1995/96 because increasing pressure on teachers' time meant there was no-one to carry on administering the game.

Annual funding grants to junior cricket were made and the Junior Association met regularly at the CCA offices.

"It is timely that this has happened and both bodies are progressing things well," he said.

© CricInfo