Staying focused

Hello again and welcome to another week with the Papua New Guinea Barramundis.
Still no word on when we we get to play any cricket.
The Barras and the Lewas’ upcoming games and tours have been postponed.
This is incredibly disappointing but obviously understandable in the current environment.
This has both squads just doing small group and individual sessions in their homes. It has been great fun to watch the videos and photos both groups have been posting of their workouts.
We are awarding prizes to the most imaginative ones and we have seen some very creative results, including tyres, car parts and mums’ pot plants. Reminds me of a scene from the Rocky movies.
These sessions have also seen the rest of the household join in, including the players’ children which has been fun to watch. Not only the children but others living in the house have also joined in which is awesome as being fit and healthy is important in these worrisome times.
In these challenging and sad times its really easy to become negative and think the world is going to end. Doom and gloom everywhere we look as governments put necessary restrictions on the population to help restrict the spread of the coronavirus.
I think it is really important to recognise that we only play sport for a living and the real heroes are the emergency service workers, especially our doctors and nurses who are risking their families’ wellbeing every day to help us stay or get healthy. These people are overworked and underpaid everywhere. If you know one or see one out and about, let’s all just say ‘thank you’.
This got me to thinking about the wonderful supporters and sponsors of our great game and that without these people, the Barramundis and Lewas would never be able to do the things they do to inspire the next generation.
Cricket volunteers cover such a wide spectrum of roles that I will never be able to mention them all but handling jobs from the board, umpiring, coaching, and running junior and indoor cricket has allowed the game to continue develop in the country.
Getting people to the game and ensuring the scoring is done are tasks that aren’t the post exhilarating but are necessary to keep the game running. To these wonderful people, we say ‘thank you’ and hope that you will stick with us in these trying times.
The other group that keep any sporting organisation is our sponsors. They are all hurting at the moment like everyone but their continued support through this situation is greatly appreciated and will allow Cricket PNG to restart its work of inspiring and finding the next Assad Vala or Brenda Tau as soon as it is safe to do so.
I wanted to make special mention to MJ Electrical here as for the past six weeks, Mick, Mitch and the MJ team have worked tirelessly to ensure everything keeps ticking along and to also transform Amini Park into one of the best facilities in associate cricket. They have had others help out along the way but Harro and his mates have been amazing and brought it all together.
A final thank you to a team that work tirelessly behind the scenes and are still doing so during the state of emergency is our amazing ground staff.
They have had the challenge of a new wicket block to contend with along with planting new grass and both are going strong. Well done, guys.
So that’s it for another week. Please stay safe, and look after your family and friends. Wash your hands.

Cheers,
Joe