Barramundis relinquish ODI status after loss

The Papua New Guinea Barramundis (114 all out) relinquished their One Day International cricket status last Thursday after losing their World Cup qualifier playoff match to Nepal (115/4).
The six-wicket loss at Old Hararians Sports Club, Harare, Zimbabwe, means the PNG go back to the drawing board to regain the ODI status they got two years ago.
For the Hebou-sponsored Barramundis, it was a heartbreaking result after toiling since 2015 for their ODI status and the hard work is all set to begin again.
Cricket PNG chief executive Greg Campbell told local media last Friday that the result had been a setback for the Barramundis but they would take it in their stride and work to regain their status.
PNG coach Joe Dawes said he was surprised by his team’s poor performance.
“Our preparation was really good, we had a couple of days off and got into some good training sessions and the feeling around the group was really good.
“We prepared as best we can and then we came out and delivered probably our worst performance of the tournament,” he said.
“It was pretty insipid batting and with the ball there it wasn’t much better.”
Dawes said there was a lot of disappointment within the team.
“But (the team) probably deserves to be disappointed because it was rubbish,” Dawes said.
The former Queensland fast-bowler said it’s going to be tough for his team to “get back up” but as professional cricketers they needed to.
Dawes said once the team returned to PNG and the dust settled, the focus would be on regaining their ODI status.
“We will be all about now getting our status back and looking at qualifying for world cups in four year’s time and the Twenty-20 and that means we will have to look at our playing group and those that are going to be around in four year’s time, or potentially be around, we will work with and those that aren’t or aren’t doing their jobs will go,” Dawes told the media.
The Barramundis (200 all out) then took out their frustrations two days later beating Hong Kong (142 all out) by 58 runs in Saturday’s ninth-place playoff.