Aidan Cahill was born and bred in South Africa.
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Rugby union had been his sport of choice in Cape Town, but since moving to Australia around six years ago cricket slowly emerged as the frontrunner.
"I grew up in South Africa and almost all sport there is done through schools," Cahill, now aged 16, said.
"You kind of see every sport because each school has at least three teams for everything.
"Cricket is quite popular, but my main focus in South Africa was rugby union.
"It was a lot different over here [Australia] and rugby was more about safety [in those age groups].
"I played [rugby] maybe one more season three years ago ... so there has been a lot more cricket."
This decision has served him well with Cahill, who relocated to Lambton from Grafton in early 2018 and plays for Newcastle City, on the verge of representing his adopted country.
The right-arm paceman will line up for the under-17 Cricket Australia (CA) squad at next summer's under-19 National Championships.
"I was just happy," he said about hearing his name read out following October's national titles in Mackay with ACT-NSW Country.
"I try not to focus on that because I don't want to put myself before the team. As a positive, I must have been doing something right to get picked."
Seamers, unlike spinners and batsmen, selected in the side were rested from this month's tournament in Perth and invited to participate in 12 months time to avoid doubling up in the same campaign and reduce workloads.
However, short term Cahill still has the CA rookie pathways program to look forward to this summer and testing at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane during January.
"They look at your total action in 3D," he said. "It should be interesting."
Cahill linked up with City after his first Bradman Cup, the under-16 NSW Country Championships, for North Coast in 2017-18.
The former Westlawn club member knew Sabres player Angus McTaggart and asked his advice upon arrival in the Hunter region.
"I remember my first training session [with City]," he said.
"There were two coaches, lots of people there and everybody was doing something. I thought this will work."
Cahill, who has since represented Newcastle at the 2018-19 Bradman Cup and last week's NSW Country colts carnival, made his first grade debut at the start of last season. Shin splints and a side strain have hindered his participation in 2019-20, restricting Cahill to just five appearances in the top XI.
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