Is Cricket Growing and Getting More Popular in Papua New Guinea?

Get to know if cricket is actually growing and getting more popular in small regions like Papua New Guinea and the future of the game.

Papua New Guinea’s cricket has progressed in 10 years. This cricket used to exist on raw talent and passion. Moreover, men’s and women’s national teams are the professionals who are being included in the teams of the International Cricket Council ranked in the top 20. The Cricket of Papua New Guinea is about to get funds from Cricket Australia and the Australian government due to the ongoing relationship of partnership.

In the upcoming 12 months, these funds will be utilized to develop the sport further and strengthen the relationship with Australia as an integral part of the Foreign Affairs and Trade Department and increase the engagement towards the Pacific. 

When asked the Question about them as the ” King and Queen of the PNG Cricket ” Pauke Siaka chuckles and answers ” maybe “. Assad Vala is one of the most capped cricketers from PNG. He has a record as a leading run-scorer. He is the skipper of the national men’s team – the PNG Barramundis. Assad was also the first Papua Guinea Cricketer who was selected for a global professional team when he played a match in Hong Kong Twenty20 Blitz Competition.

Advertisement

Progress about Papua New Guinea

While Siaka was the captain of the PNG National Women’s Team. It is said this all-rounder is on a trip to Abu Dhabi with Lewis discussing T20 World Cup qualifiers. Siaka and Vala co-parent their nine-year-old son while juggling a career in sports. When it comes to Cricket, there is a lot of travel. Siaka and Vala claim to have been in more than 30 countries including Japan, the Netherlands, Namibia, Oman, Argentina, Nepal and China for their Cricket Tours.

Cricket Hub Of PNG 

Siaka stated that she has faced a lot when she started playing cricket as a girl on the dirt road of the village. But now Hanuabada is the main hub of cricket. It is said that out of 17, 14 women from the team of Lewis are from Hanuabada. Due to increased recognition and popularity, the estimated population of Hanuabada is around 20,000. It is not far from Port Moresby. There the homes are made of shacks on stilts and one can easily reach the ocean in a few meters.

It will be easier to guess when Hanuabada became the hub of cricket, while the maximum population was addicted to Rugby. The situation has been the same since the Britishers introduced this game in the 1900s. Hanuabada has given many successful players and will continue to train the cricketers to play in the league Internationally.

Former Australian Test Cricketer and Cricket PNG executive Greg Campbell was the first person who ushered in the new period of Cricket PNG. PNG got an early breakthrough in 2013 when there was a partnership with the South Australian Premier League. That was the first time PNG was accepted for domestic competition. After that, PNG’s school-based Cricket development program trained more than 30,000 to play cricket.

This year PNG has introduced the women’s team. The funds from Australia will be used for training. This funding also sponsored the Barras who are playing for Northern Territory’s Top End T20. Under the supervision of the coach, the Barras will host the USA and Namibia in their first league of the 2 series.

“Get more breaking news, cricket updates, fixtures and trending news only on cricfiles.com. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel today.”