Out-of-towners cause trouble for locals at ACCC
It's been a record-breaking Commonwealth Bank Australian Country Cricket Championships campaign for East Asia Pacific.
The exciting Pacific nations line-up, whose players have been selected from Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Samoa and Fiji, has enjoyed its most successful carnival on a team performance front.
Three victories from five matches eclipsed the Pacific foreign legion’s previous best of two wins at a carnival. There have also been a swag of individual records and a record team score of 399 against Victoria on Monday.
Papua New Guinea paceman Willie Gavera, a quiet young man blessed with raw pace, got the ball rolling in the opening match as he claimed a then EAP best of 6/47 against the Northern Territory.
Sadly, the tearaway suffered a carnival-ending side strain in the same match. Despite the injury, Gavera reflected on the benefit of playing high level cricket in Australia.
“Playing back home, it’s a good level but it’s good to get some good skills here and face the good players from other states in Australia,” Gavera said.
Samoan quick Faasa’o Mulivai eclipsed Gavera’s bowling record when he claimed 6/30 against Victoria on Sunday with his bustling medium pace. A day later, top order batsman Chris Amini belted the carnival’s highest individual score, 122, also against Victoria.
At times brash, the Pacific side has since taken the carnival by storm with its exciting take on the game and sits second on the table with two one-day matches remaining.
East Asia Pacific coach Tom Evans, given the responsibility of guiding the diverse group through the tournament in his role with the International Cricket Council, is justifiably proud of his charges.
Evans is in charge of the multinational group, who were selected from trials involving ten East Asian nations.
There are programs across PNG, Vanuatu, Samoa and Fiji and in nations such as Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and the Phillipines as part of an ICC push to develop cricket in the Pacific and in Asia.
This year’s combined team united quickly, with the players enjoying each other’s company as well as the opportunity to hone their skills against top class opposition.
“PNG’s cricket program is pretty advanced and the other countries are still developing. It’s really pleasing to see some guys from Samoa in the team as the cricket has really improved there in the last 12 months,” Evans said.
“These countries are all part of the ICC development program. There are ten countries in the East Asia Pacific region that we support to grow the game.”
As the strongest East Asian cricket nation, PNG will attempt to qualify for the ICC World Twenty20 tournament during a qualifier in Abu Dhabi in March.
PNG is drawn to play against Afghanistan, Netherlands, Canada, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Denmark and Nepal in Group A of the qualifiers.
The two finalists from the 16-team tournament will earn a place at the Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka from September 18 to October 7.
Many good judges believe the PNG is a huge chance to seal a place at the event.
