'A really good challenge for me': Teenager out to impress at country week

Heytesbury Princetown Storm youngster Ryan Mottram has been selected for South West Cricket's Melbourne Country Week squad which will play in division two next week.

The 16-year-old Timboon P-12 College student will miss the week of school to take part in the time-honoured carnival after spending all of his summer holidays playing a range of club and junior representative cricket.

He's the youngest player in the Johno Benallack-led squad to be picked and is eager to grab his chance against the state's best country cricketers.

"It's a good feeling to be selected, I'm pretty excited for it," he told The Standard.

"It'll be a lot higher standard than what I've played before but I'll give it my best and try and do as well as I can.

"I'm still young, still learning so I feel like it's going to be a really good challenge for me."

Still learning and growing as a cricketer, the top-order batter said he was eager to experience the conditions and grounds in Melbourne after a jam-packed season already having scored more than 700 runs across 30 matches in various teams.

He led the South West's under 17 team at junior country week team and played in Mortlake-Cobden's Twenty20 under 17 premiership.

"I've been playing all summer really, but I'm not complaining so it's all good," he said.

"Melbourne will be a big difference than what we get down here for sure, you'll get a lot more value for your shots.

"I think they'll be really good pitches to play on. I can't wait."

While he is unsure what his future holds in cricket at this stage, the enthusiastic teenager isn't ruling out playing premier cricket at some point.

"Obviously it'd be good to play it, I've got to get better though and it's a hard level of cricket to get into," he said.

"As a cricketer you always look towards playing that kind of stuff."

Mottram praised Heytesbury Princetown for teaching him about the game from a young age and credited two stalwarts of the club for their ongoing support.

"Simon Harkness has probably taught me everything and Paul Vogels too, they've been real mentors for me and taught me so much," he said.

"It will help having Paul there (at country week), he'll be coming up with me and will talk me through it, he's played a fair few of them and knows what it's about, he's got the experience.

"Those two have been huge for me in my cricket."

South West begins its country week campaign against Bellarine in Geelong on Monday, February 12.