A combined team of girls from Wellington and Hutt Valley flew out from New Zealand yesterday to begin a four-match tour of the Argentine.

The tour is the result of an invitation from the Argentine Cricket Association which has previously sent three youth teams to New Zealand on tours.

Thirteen girls aged 13-16, all of whom have achieved representative cricket level, have taken up the invitation. The girls have raised $85,000 to make the trip from stocktaking and raffles while the New Zealand Community Trust, the Lion Foundation, Pub Charities and the Norwood Trust in Wellington have been very supportive of the tour.

A cocktail evening was held in Wellington on October 29 to draw the name of the team sponsor, which went to McLaren Associates Management Consultants.

The Minister of Sport and Recreation, and also Education, Trevor Mallard attended the evening along with the Argentine Ambassador and members of the boards for Cricket Wellington and New Zealand Cricket.

Three of the team's games will be played in Buenos Aires and one in Rosario.

The girls will also take part in cricketing clinics and share their cricketing experiences with their hosts.

Former New Zealand opening batsman Bruce Edgar is the coach of the team which is managed by Thelma Colquhoun.

The team is being taken on a sightseeing tour of Buenos Aires today and this evening travels to Lomas de Zamora where they will play a hockey game tomorrow morning and a cricket game in the afternoon against Southern Districts at St Albans College grounds in Buenos Aires.

On Monday the players will visit the Tigre Valley and on Tuesday they will play the Argentine Girls' XI at St Georges College-Quilmes, Buenos Aires.

Wednesday involves a bus trip to Rosario with sightseeing on the way and a cricket clinic on arrival before meeting their billets.

On Thursday afternoon they will play a Rosario combined boys' and girls' team.

That will be followed on Friday morning by a hockey game and in the afternoon a game of cricket against a combined Buenos Aires/Rosario side.

The last game of the tour is next Sunday, against a North XI in Buenos Aires.

The team leaves on the night after that game at 12.10am and arrives back in Auckland on December 18.

Team members are: Chamindi Abeyratne, Melissa Burgess, Victoria Colquhoun, Lucy Doolan, Holly Edgar, Rosemary Froggatt, Lucy Goddard, Gaya Gnanalingam, Philippa Gueorgieff, Phillippa Gunn, Rachel Harris, Danella Pike, Gina Ropiana, Bruce Edgar (coach), Thelma Colquhoun (manager).

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