IT has been a busy time for Cooper Brien and it will only get busier next week when he heads to Barooga in the Riverina for the NSW PSSA Boys Cricket Championships.

Brien, a student at the Cathedral School, will represent the Polding team at the competition, having been through selection trials to get there.

Only last week he was representing Polding at the PSSA athletics carnival where he competed in the high jump.

And in between he’s found time to make his senior cricket debut with St Pat’s in the Bathurst presidents cup competition as well as starting off the representative season for the Bathurst District under 12s against Mudgee.

“We had a selection trial in Dubbo and I managed to get through that one, and then had to go up to Lismore for the second one,” he said.

“I’m in the side as a bowler but I bat a bit as well, in the district team I’ve been playing more as a batsman.

“I don’t really know a lot of my team-mates, there is one player in there from Dubbo but the rest of them are from all over the place, Polding covers a pretty big area.”

The 11-year-old is no stranger to representative cricket and has already represented Mitchell in the past as well as competing in the Max Shepherd Shield with under 14s players in Dubbo.

His seam bowling will be tested when his side comes up against Sydney East on day one of the carnival in Barooga on Monday, with the remainder of the draw to be determined as the tournament progresses.

It is a slightly different proposition to what he was facing last week when he contested the high jump at the PSSA titles.

“I think I did okay but I was up against some pretty good jumpers, one of them jumped 1.56 metres and he was as big as most adults. He was nearly as tall as my dad,” Brien said.

“Cricket is probably my favourite sport, so it is the one I really want to do well in. 

“I got to play my first presidents cup game on the weekend, I only got to field but was next in to bat. I had a pretty good game for my junior team that day, I made 50 and got three wickets, so I was pretty happy with that.”

Cooper isn’t the only member of his family doing well on the field, with his older brother Bailey having started the summer in good form with 22 for the Bathurst under 14s side in their massive win over Mudgee last Sunday.