Northern Inland is hoping it's third time lucky as the region's best and brightest young cricket talent gets set to strap on the pads this weekend.
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The NICC will hold trials in Tamworth on Sunday for the under-13s, under-14s, under-15s and under-16s Regional Academy squads.
It will be their third attempt after having to twice postpone them.
"We've been trying to hold them for weeks now," NICC administrator Richard Bullock.
He conceded the school holidays probably wasn't the ideal time but they didn't have a lot of options.
"We had to get kids picked," he said.
"And we don't want to go on picking on reputation or on stats."
Under the current health orders matches are not permitted but training and trials with a COVID-safe plan in place.
"We've got QR codes and will have sanitation stations," Bullock said.
As part of their COVID plan the trials will also be staggered with the under-13s from 9.30am-11.30am, followed by the under-14s from 12pm-1.30pm and finishing with the under-15s and under-16s from 2-4pm.
When they will actually get to play is at the moment a bit of a waiting game.
Usually a lot of the 16s and 18s players would be involved in the northern NSW Regional Pathways Challenge over the long weekend in Tamworth, but the carnival has been postponed.
When, or whether, it is able to be played will depend on whether there is availability on the calendar, but as Bullock pointed out what is ordinarily a "very heavy" schedule is probably going to be "more compressed" this season because of the later start.
"First of all we'll get them into some academy sessions, blow some of the cobwebs out," he said.
They'll at least be able to "keep their skill set up" so when they do get the green light to play they will be ready to go.
Bullock said the youngsters are all "super keen".
"They can't wait," he said.