Barramundis, Top and Lewas cricket teams.
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The recent performances of the Papua New Guinea (PNG) national men’s and women’s teams have put Papua New Guinea cricket on the world map.
The Barramundis men’s team is ranked 19th in the T20 International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings while the Lewas are placed 11th.
Cricket PNG chief executive Richard Dunn said the game was growing in popularity locally and was making “some waves” not least due to the achievements of both Barramundis and Lewas over the years.
He said the game has been in PNG for more than 100 years and despite the fact that rugby league is the country’s national game, Cricket PNG is happy with the growth locally.
“Rugby league is by far the biggest game here, but you know cricket is on the international stage, we’re really trying to make some waves and we’re also trying to grow the game domestically,” he told RNZ Pacific. Trying to.”
Barramundis head coach Tatenda Taibu is preparing his team for the T20 World Cup to be held in the West Indies in June.
Taibu said he was confident of some disturbance.
“The players believe we can go to the next stage,” he said.
“The players are looking forward to it and are really positive about getting results, especially against teams that are higher ranked than us.”
The Barramundis played 14 matches across Asia this year in preparation for the world championship, while the Levantes won the Pacific Cup by defeating the New Zealand Maori team in the final in Auckland earlier this year.
They also made history by winning their first T20 match against a full ICC member in Zimbabwe, whom they beat by one run in the Super last week, but lost the three-match series 2-1.
RNZ Pacific spoke to Dunn and Taibu.
RNZP: We have seen some amazing performances from both your national teams in the last three years. How big is cricket in Papua New Guinea?
Richard Dunn(RD): Well, cricket, I think many people might not know is a very old game in Papua New Guinea. It was brought here by missionaries many years ago. There are some great stories to come out of PNG cricket and it goes back 100 years…there’s a very strong history here. The game has been up and down in terms of popularity. Rugby league is by far the biggest game here, but since cricket is on the international stage, we are really trying to create some waves and we are trying to grow the game domestically as well. As an indication of size, approximately 139,000 children participated in our schools program last year. At the end of last year, in what we call our Malolo Holiday Cricket Competition, we were able to grow from about 10 to 165 teams, all under-13 and under-18 and thirty percent of those numbers were girls. So, there has been a lot of development and there is a lot of hope for the future.
RNZP: Your current local competitions, where do you have them and what is the number of clubs and what competitions are taking place?
RD: Then, we move on to the formal side of cricket. We have competitions across the country, the main center is Port Moresby, but going down the coast we have 15 to 20 other villages that have their own competitions and we have created them into regions. There is also a lot of cricket in Lae in the north of our country, but there are also some areas like Milne Bay at the end of Papua New Guinea which are showing great potential for development. There is a town down there, Gura, which we brought back into cricket last year, now there is an eight-team competition going on in the village. We also have some big clubs in the Highlands, which is a huge center for rugby league. But we have many development officers and regional managers in the region. And also, we’re seeing some growth in New Britain, where we have a very strong school program, but also some regional competitions are starting to take off. The numbers never look really impressive but we are seeing around 200 to 250 teams playing regular competitive cricket across the country.
RNZP: How is the support from corporate companies and sponsors? This always seems to be one of the biggest problems in the islands for small games.
RD: It is getting better. We have the major sponsor of the Barramundis, Kumul Petroleum, and we also have a second tier sponsor in the Santos Foundation, which does social impact and we have BSP, which is a major sponsor of our schools program. We have a number of other smaller sponsors who also really support us. What we are looking for now is increased corporate support. We are very fortunate to have Isuzu as the brand for our T20 Smash, which is a competition that runs over six weeks at the moment. We are slowly making some inroads into the corporate world of Papua New Guinea.
Approximately 139,000 children will join our school program in 2023.
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RNZP: How is your pathways program going?
RD: There were probably many paths leading up to the onset of Covid. Obviously Covid affected everyone and we got screwed during that time. We are in the process of re-developing those pathways and a big step forward was Malolo Cricket, where we have now got 165 teams across the country from under-13 to under-18. We are hoping to take it closer to 250 to 300 in the July to September period. In terms of junior pathways, we are very strong. We have also launched our own national championships this year for both men and women at both 40-over and T20 levels. We are not playing 50 overs at the national level but it is more or less to avoid some pressure on grounds and resources. But as a part of this we are now starting regional championships. We have divided the country into six main regions and we are trying to develop our own paths within those regions. So kids have a clear pathway to the top of the game with the aim of playing underage and senior national championships.
RNZP: Are there a lot of competitions for your national teams?
RD: Unfortunately, at this time, we are not part of the Pacific Games in the form of cricket. But through your interview here, we can put forward our stand to say that cricket should be a part of it as it has been in the past. We came to New Zealand in January with our Lewaz team and they won the Pacific Cup, beating the New Zealand Maori team in the final, which was a fantastic result for us, it was their first win over what you could call a full member national team. They have recently continued that success where they finished a series in Zimbabwe where for the first time we have beaten an ICC full member in Zimbabwe in an official game of cricket. So they are making progress. Our team is ranked 11th among 80 countries in the world in T20 cricket. We also have ODI status for that team. We are trying to play the minimum number of games so that we can get a place in the main table. Of course, the big story for us this year is the Barramundi men’s team going to the World Cup in the West Indies. We’ve got West Indies, interestingly we’ve got New Zealand, we’ve also got Afghanistan and Uganda in that group. So now we are planning to upset some of those teams and try to advance to the next stage of the tournament. But we’re definitely going there to compete. Really exciting for our senior teams. The Under-19 teams, our Under-19 Women are playing in the East Asian Pacific Qualifier and the winner of that tournament goes straight to the next ICC Under-19 World Cup. Our boys are playing in Division Two this time for various reasons, but they have to qualify through it. They then advance to the immediate qualifiers for the Under-19 Boys’ World Cup next year. We had the Barramundis on tour, now we’ve also got Levaz to complete our tour that’s coming up.
Cricket PNG runs competitions across the country.
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Barramundi coach Taibu says the team is excited about the World Cup to be co-hosted by West Indies and USA from June 1-29.
RNZP: How is the team’s preparation and what are you looking forward to during the preparation?
Tatenda Taibu (TT): Preparations are going well, the team has been paying well for the last few years, thanks to the coaches who were training them earlier. I have taken over a team that is playing well, which also helps. But the preparations are very good. We went to India, we went to Chennai, then from Chennai we went to Oman, then played Hong Kong and Hong Kong and Nepal and then we finished our tour in Malaysia. So we played a total of 14 games in a month and a half, which is great preparation going into the World Cup.
RNZP: How do you see your chances at the World Cup?
TT: Everyone on the board and in the office, as well as the players, believe that we can move to the next stage. The players are looking forward to it and are really positive about getting results, especially against teams who are ranked higher than us. At the moment, you see the boys building and bowling on the grounds, it is really exciting. Once we pick up a few things on betting I think we will be a good team to play good cricket and create something.
RNZP: Have there been any major changes in the player composition in your team?
TT: There are no major changes but obviously the players coming from the Under-19 team have come from that group. So we’ve got two young players who have come into a group of lads who have been playing for a while so I’m really pleased the changing room is full of experience
RNZP: How do you view your pool matches and what do you expect?
TT: Our first match will be against West Indies, then we have Uganda, after that we have Afghanistan and will end with New Zealand. We expect every game to be a tough game because we know it is 20 of the best (cricket playing) countries in the world.
