The South West Cricket Association country week representative has been selected in the Victoria Country deaf and hard of hearing cricket team.

Hay, who is hearing impaired, will pull on the ‘big v’ and play for his state at the National Cricket Inclusion Championships held at Geelong in late January.

“It is a really good opportunity to go down to Melbourne and play with Vic Country,” he said.

“It is always something that I wanted to do since I was a young kid so I am looking forward to it.

“Hopefully I can take some wickets and make some runs and that, but the main thing is learn a few things and bring that back to Terang and show I can play better cricket.”

The Terang all-rounder will play at the championships for the first time, which he revealed was made possible by the encouragement of opponent and Heytesbury Rebels player Jeff Rosolin.

Hay said had it not been for Rosolin he would not be embarking on what he saw as the highlight of his cricket career.

“Jeff gave me a phone call and said I should try out and was more than happy to take me down to the trainings in Melbourne and then they said to me that I was in,” he said.

“It is probably my batting that has been better at the minute, but I have improved my bowling as well so I think they might have seen me as a bit of an all-rounder.”

Hay was not the only person at the Terang Cricket Club to be proud of the news.

Captain-coach Liam Geary said he was delighted to see one of his best players reap the rewards for countless hours of working on becoming the player he was today.

“It is massive, a massive accomplishment for Tys,” he said.

“We were absolutely thrilled to find out about it as a club, as Tyson has worked pretty hard for a long time.

“So it is a real acknowledgement for that hard work as a junior and developing his cricket in division one over the last few years.”

So far this season Hay has made 101 runs with a top score of 33 and also taken six wickets with his best figures being 2-40.

Geary said although he saw him as an all-rounder, it was his batting that impressed him the most.

The Terang leader said he believed Hay look set to enjoy more success with both the bat and ball as the season went on.

“He is probably fairly technically correct as a batsman, he has probably got one of the better techniques at our club I believe,” he said.

“He hasn’t necessarily made as many runs as he would have liked so far this season but he has had a few good starts and looking for a big second half of the season.”