Cricket making real waves

 ONCE again Papua New Guinea’s cricketers are turning heads with impressive performances on the road. 

Cricket is continuing to outshine the other major sports in the country and can confidently assume the mantle of the most progressive code to date. 

The funding the game receives from the International Cricket Council and local businesses has obviously been put to good use by Cricket PNG. 

The investment has been significant over the past five years – ICC funding and corporate support totalling several million kina has not disappeared down a black-hole, and the results are telling. The junior programme called Liklik Cricket has won ICC regional awards for taking the game to children around the nation. 

Cricket has been averaging over 100,000 children every year in that. 

The women’s national side, the Lewas, has been in the top two in the East Asia Pacific region, battling Japan for the top spot since 2010.

The venues for cricket, particularly in Port Moresby, the stronghold of the sport nationally, have been upgraded from cement pit­ches to proper turf pitches good enough to host international matches. 

Amini Park and the neighbouring Colts Oval are giving Port Moresby clubs the chance to play year-in and year-out on ICC standard pitches. It may not sound like a big deal to those unfamiliar with the sport, but bowlers do appreciate a surface that offers some assistance off the pitch. 

The pathway through the junior ranks to the seniors has been successful, with the best and most committed junior cricketers given scholarships to play in Australia. From there they are bred to be competitive, gritty players in the Australian environment. 

The testament to this is the form of our senior men’s cricket side, the Barramundis, who have been consistently good over a number of years at the associate level, the ICC’s second tier. 

If anyone needs evidence of cricket’s rise on the world stage then last month’s T20 World Cup qualifiers in the United Arab Emirates would have served notice to all and sundry. 

The sport is putting PNG on the map like no other code has, and for all the right reasons. 

The Barramundis are not just making the numbers, or barely competing; they are winning games convincingly and doing it against very good opposition and they are doing it in an area the national side has struggled to for consistency in – batting. 

A true sign of a great side is that they do not just rely on one or two players to carry the side. They have potential match-winners on every slot in the batting card. Yesterday in New Plymouth, New Zealand, Assad Vala and Lega Siaka hit centuries against Kenya in the opening match of the One-Day World Cup qualifiers. 

Kenya scored 249 runs for the loss of nine wickets in their 50 overs. Raymond Haoda Jr, a bowler who was fairly quiet in the UAE last month, continued his impressive warm-up form where he picked up 5-29 against Hong Kong on Saturday, by snaring 4-50, proving that New Zealand conditions are to his liking.  

Siaka (103) and Vala (105 not out) showed that Papua New Guinean cricketers can mix it with the best associate players and are not far from being considered good enough to ply their trade in the top tier of cricket. 

The ODI World Cup qualifiers will certainly provide that opportunity for the country’s talent. 

PNG only have to finish in the top six of the 10-team competition to be guaranteed more than a million kina in annual ICC development funding, while a top two finish will see them do what no other national cricket team has done – qualify for a World Cup.