Papua New Guinea continued their dominance in Apia with another convincing win to take the World Cricket League section of the East Asia Pacific (EAP) Trophy.

Continue reading "Papua New Guinea steamroll Japan"

Papua New Guinea are the East Asia-Pacific Under-19 champions after they beat Vanuatu by 172 runs in the final at Amini Park, Port Moresby.

PNG won the toss and elected to bat in overcast conditions and scored freely early on, reaching 24 without loss before Lega Tau was well caught by Karl Laau from the bowling of Niko Unavalu. Heni Siaka was hitting everything in the middle, and started to free his arms, ably supported by middle-order batsmen Tony Ura (27) and Jason Kila (48).

The talented Siaka scored his maiden century for PNG, by far the best innings of the tournament. He was eventually dismissed for 101, but by then the damage had been done and PNG raced towards a huge total, batting their full 50 overs reaching 276 for 8.

It was to take a monumental effort by Vanuatu to chase down these runs, and early on the fielding talents of PNG rose to the fore, with two magnificent run-outs reducing Vanuatu to 31 for 2. They fought on valiantly before they were eventually dismissed for 103 after 34 overs. Jason Kila was the chief destroyer with 4 for 20.

In the battle for 3rd place at Colts Ground, Fiji beat Indonesia by six wickets in a game affected by rain.

PNG and Vanuatu will head to Canada to participate in the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup Qualifier.

ICC staff

The 11-team Jakarta Cricket League reaches the business stage of the season this weekend when eight sides contest the quarter-finals.

The quarter-finals begin a knock-out process which culminates in the Grand Final on May 17.

The three quarter-finals being played this weekend are minor premier Senayan vs Bogor at Cibubur, Ceylon v Rebels at Karawaci and GMIS-1 plays India XI at Purwakarta on March 22. The fourth semi-finalist will be decided when ISCI Woods plays Challengers at Cibubur on April 5.

The highlight of the domestic season was the addition of the Jakarta Globe Tigers, the first club in the league to be run completely by Indonesian officials, and comprise primarily locally born players. Although winless, the players showed great improvement as the season went on.

Those players will no doubt be keen to play the visiting Marylebone Cricket Club when it visits Indonesia in October.

And other international cricket will be played in Indonesia when seven teams - Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Japan, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands descend on Jakarta to join the host for the East Asia-Pacific Under-15 tournament.

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While all attention is on Afghanistan and their seemingly relentless progress towards the 2011 World Cup, their success story has served to inspire others around globe.

Twenty years ago cricket was almost unknown in Indonesia, but then a few expats started to play and the game has taken off beyond their wildest dreams.

Continue reading "Indonesia aiming to be the next Afghanistan"

A seminar for the ICC’s East Asia – Pacific (EAP) Development Program kicked off today in Melbourne. The five-day course is “a key component in the process to achieve sustainable cricket education within the EAP region and includes an ICC Level 1 coaching Cricket Instructors Course,” the statement read.

Nine highly regarded coaches were selected from an extremely strong pool to attend. The participants are:

PNG John Ovia & Rarua Dikana

Vanuatu Richard Tatwin and Aby Joel John
Japan Jummei Hanada & Nigel Dixon
Fiji Seci Sekinini
Indonesia Melvin Ndoen
Tonga Sione Hamala

The ICC EAP have been able to gain access to world-class facilities through Cricket Australia, Cricket Victoria and the Melbourne Cricket Club.

The ICC EAP Strategic Plan has a strong focus on developing quality cricket coaches in the EAP region, and the Advanced Coaching & Development Seminar is a major part of building sustainable coach development practises.

Next week's ICC annual get-together promises to have more than its fair share of politicking, posturing and controversy. But, unless there is a major about-turn, it should also be a watershed for the Associates and Affiliates.

In 2009, income from the ICC's six-year media deal with ESPN-Star, worth over US$1 billion, kicks in, and while the game's big boys will still keep the lion's share, the rest will see substantial increases in their incomes.

Continue reading "Future bright beyond the Test world"

Associate Member Bermuda picked up two prizes in the ICC Development Program Annual awards, making them the winners in this year’s competition. They were awarded the Best Overall Cricket Development Program and the Photo of the year titled “It’s a Catch”.

Continue reading "Bermuda's development recognised by the ICC"

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

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Japan, Cook Islands and Samoa recorded strong wins in the opening round of the ICC EAP Cricket Trophy in Auckland.

Japan dismissed Vanuatu for 142 inside 35 overs. Vanuatu lost both openers early leaving Andrew Mansale (79 off 97) to rescue the innings, but he found little support. Mansale's 3 for 9 then gave them a glimmer, but Tetsuo Fuji (27 not out) and Munir Ahmed (26 not out) took Japan home in the 40th over to complete a five-wicket win.

Cook Islands bowled strongly and took regular wickets against Indonesia, dismissing them for 148 in the 44th over. Chris Brown (3 for 25 off 8 overs) and Mou Maururai (3 for 29 off 8.5 overs) were the stand-out bowlers. Joseph Joe took them home, with an unbeaten 44, although he was dropped early on.

Samoa won the battle of the Pacific rivals, beating Tonga by 89 runs. Opening bowler Mafi Langi (3 for 38 off 10 overs) claimed early wickets for Tonga, however Uala Kaisala (54 off 88) led the recovery where Samoa reached 191. Tonga started their run chase cautiously and were unable to build momentum, losing regular wickets. Winston Marriner took the honours with 3 for 33 off 5 overs to wrap up the innings with Tonga all out for 102 in the 32nd over.

The Indonesian cricket board has announced an ambitious US$200,000 three-year development programme aimed at spreading the game outside its traditional base of expats.

A report in The Jakarta Post quoted Cricket Indonesia chairman Sachin Gopalan, who said that the campaign would target "individuals and middle-sized companies who are interested in the development of cricket in Indonesia. The idea is to prove to those involved in cricket development that this program is a serious and long-term one.”

Board secretary Prakash Vijaykumar said that the association was planning to publicise the game across the country. “We are starting to introduce the sport in new areas in cooperation with National Sports Council provincial chapters in places such as Banten, Riau, East Kalimantan, Yogyakarta and Surabaya. We want to transform cricket into a popular sport for Indonesian people.”