Hula set sights on girls cricket

By ROBINSON LEKA
TEAM Australia, represented by Hula in the Under-19 Women’s Village World Cup, have set their sights on reviving cricket for girls along Rigo’s coast with the team heading into this week’s semifinals.
After two days of competition, the Christopher Ola-coached side faced Gabi village (Team Netherlands) in the semifinals, but rain in Port Moresby forced the deferral of yesterday’s match.
Ola told The National that the experience was an eye-opener with the Hood Point side eager to extend their reach in women’s cricket.
“This is the first of its kind for our girls,” he said.
“There’s no girls competition back in the village.
“All our players here are from the village, all of them are in school back at Hula.
“Prior to us coming into the tournament, we had trials for two weeks to select a final side.
“We played two games. We lost one and won one, and our girls are into the semifinals.
“We are hoping to go all the way to the final.
“There’s a big improvement from my players in how they’ve been playing for the past two days.
“It’s a standard pitch (in Port Moresby) and they’re playing well compared with what they’ve been doing back at home.
“It’s good to have our girls get this kind of start in a tournament.
“We’d like to see more of our women participate, so we’ll be having games for U17s and U19s next month.”