Papua New Guinea national cricket team

Cricket was introduced to the Territory of Papua by missionaries in the 1890s, and the local population soon took up the game. Matches were not always played to strict rules, with teams of more than fifty players a common occurrence. Cricket did not arrive in the Territory of New Guinea until Australia took over the administration of the territory under a United Nations mandate.[8]

Cricket in rural areas tended to be played mostly by the indigenous population, whilst in urban areas such as Port Moresby the game was played mostly by the British and Australian expatriate population, and a competition for clubs in the city was started in 1937. A team of nine expatriate and two indigenous players played in Papua New Guinea's first international, against Australia[8] in 1972.[15]

Since its beginnings cricket was picked up naturally in the Motuan areas of Papua New Guinea, most recognisably the village of Hanuabada. Hanuabada village is located on the outer suburbs of Port Moresby, here cricket is played everyday from small children to their national stars, every afternoon the streets are flooded with boys playing cricket, this was also where the Liklik Kricket Competition was started in PNG. It may be for these reasons more than half of the PNG national cricket team is from Hanuabada village.

Papua New Guinea became an associate member of the ICC in 1973,[16] shortly before the country gained independence in 1975.[8] The West Indies cricket team visited the country that year, beating the national side by four wickets.[17] The team for that match contained six indigenous players, and from this point on, indigenous players began to dominate the national team.[8]

They played in the first ICC Trophy in 1979, though they failed to progress beyond the first round.[18] They won the gold medal at the first South Pacific Games cricket tournament later in the year and have won the gold medal every time since.[8][11] After a tour of Australia in 1981,[19] Papua New Guinea had their best international performance in the 1982 ICC Trophy where they finished third after beating Bangladesh in a play-off.[20]

Papua New Guinea again failed to progress beyond the first round at the 1986 ICC Trophy,[21] though they did record the highest total in the tournament's history in their match against Gibraltar.[22] They bounced back to win the gold medal at the South Pacific Games in New Caledonia the following year.[8] They reached the second round of the 1990 ICC Trophy in the Netherlands[23] and the gold medal when they hosted the South Pacific Games in 1991.[8]

They reached the plate final of the 1994 ICC Trophy, but did not play the match as they had already booked a flight home, not expecting to qualify.[24] This has been an occasional problem for Papua New Guinea, as flights to and from the country are infrequent. They also left the 1998 ACC Trophy in Nepal early after losing their first two games, forfeiting their match against the Maldives as otherwise they would have had to have waited more than a week for the next flight. This has also meant they have rarely played overseas outside of official tournaments, the only exceptions being a visit to Fiji in 1977, a tour of Hong Kong in the early 1980s and the aforementioned tour of Australia.[8]

Another international outlet for Papua New Guinea team opened up in 1996 when they participated in the first ACC Trophy in Kuala Lumpur. They reached the semi-final, where they lost to Bangladesh.[25] They played in the tournament again in 1998, but left the tournament early. They have not played in the tournament since due to the establishment of the ICC's East Asia/Pacific development region.[8] In-between the two ACC Trophy tournaments, Papua New Guinea finished 13th in the 1997 ICC Trophy.[26] They failed to progress beyond the first round of the 2001 tournament in Ontario.[27] They finished third in the 2001 Pacifica Cup[28] and won the same event in 2002, beating Tonga in the final.[29]

They again won the gold medal at cricket tournament of the 2003 South Pacific Games,[30] and in 2005 played in the repêchage tournament of the 2005 ICC Trophy. They won the tournament after beating regional rivals Fiji in the final.[31] This qualified them for the 2005 ICC Trophy, where they finished 11th.[32] In 2007, Papua New Guinea played in Division Three of the World Cricket League in Darwin where they finished third.[33] They played in the cricket tournament of the 2007 South Pacific Games, where they again won the gold medal.[11]

In late January 2009, Papua New Guinea travelled to Buenos Aires to take part in Division Three of the World Cricket League where they played Argentina, the Cayman Islands, Uganda and the top two teams from Division Four in 2008. A top two finish in this tournament would have qualified them for the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier in South Africa later in 2009, from which they could have qualified for the 2011 World Cup.[34] Papua New Guinea narrowly missed qualification, ending up in third place behind Afghanistan and Uganda.

It was third time lucky for Papua New Guinea when they contested Division Three of the World Cricket League in January 2011. Winning their first 4 matches of the tournament, they had assured themselves a top two finish, before losing the final round robin match and then the final, both against Hong Kong.

In April 2011, Papua New Guinea took part in Division Two of the World Cricket League, held in the United Arab Emirates and came third, thus qualifying for the 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand.

In February 2013, Papua New Guinea travelled to Auckland, New Zealand, for the EAP Championship and went through the group stages unbeaten before defeating Vanuatu in the final.[35] As a result, they participated in the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE in October.

Papua New Guinea finished 4th in the final qualifying tournament for the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, in New Zealand in 2014. While missing out on qualification for the World Cup, their final position allowed them to gain One Day International (ODI) status for the first time.[36] By having ODI status, the International Cricket Council (ICC) also granted Papua New Guinea Twenty20 International (T20I) status.[37]

The team played their first ODI match in a two-match series against Hong Kong in Australia in November 2014.[38]

8 November 2014 Scorecard

Hong Kong  202 (48.3)	v	Papua New Guinea 203/6 (40 overs)
Jamie Atkinson 59 (79) Assad Vala 2/17 (5 overs)		Charles Amini 61* (67) Irfan Ahmed 3/51 (8 overs)

Papua New Guinea won by 4 wickets Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville Umpires: Phil Jones (NZ) and Paul Wilson (Aus)

• Hong Kong won the toss and chose to bat.
• First ever ODI match for Papua New Guinea.

They won the first by 4 wickets, the second by 3 wickets. As on date (November-2016), they are the only country that has won its first two ODIs.[39]

Papua New Guinea's first scheduled T20I match was against Hong Kong on 13 July 2015 at the 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. However the match was abandoned without a ball bowled due to rain, with no toss taking place.[40] They played their first full match two days later, against Ireland, beating them by 2 wickets.[41] With their victory against Nepal on 17 July, they became the first team to qualify for the play-off section of the tournament.[42]

Papua New Guinea crashed out early from the race of qualification for the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 slated to be held in India. They finished eighth during the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in Ireland and Scotland.

In September 2017, then team coach Jason Gillespie suggested that Papua New Guinea should be added to the Australian domestic limited-overs cricket tournament.[43][44]

Amini Park is a cricket ground in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.[45][46] The ground is named for the Amini family, several of whom have played cricket for Papua New Guinea,[47] the ground has seen the men's team play Australia, the West Indies and Victoria.

The women's team played Japan in a three match series at the ground in September 2006.[48]

Amini Park

Locations of all stadiums which have hosted international cricket matches within Papua New Guinea

• 1979: First round[18]
• 1982: 3rd place[20]
• 1986: First round[21]
• 1990: Second round[23]
• 1994: Reached plate final but did not take part[24]
• 1997: 13th place[26]
• 2001: First round[27]
• 2005: 11th place[32]
• 2009: Did not qualify
• 2014: 4th place
• 2018: 9th place

• 2012: 8th place[49]
• 2013: 8th place[50]
• 2015: 8th Place[51]
• 2019: Runners-up[52]

• 2007: Division Three 3rd place[33]
• 2009: Division Three 3rd place[53]
• 2011: Division Three 2nd place[54]
• 2011: Division Two 3rd place[55]
• 2019: Division Two 3rd place[56]

• 2009: 1st place[57]
• 2011: 1st place[58]
• 2013: 1st place[35]

• 2001: 3rd place[28]
• 2002: Winners[29]

• 1979: Gold medal[8]
• 1987: Gold medal[8]
• 1991: Gold medal[8]
• 2003: Gold medal
• 2007: Gold medal
• 2011: Gold medal
• 2015: Silver medal
• 2019: Gold medal

• 1996: Semi-final[25]
• 1998: First round[8]
• 2000 onwards: Not taken part as now part of the East Asia/Pacific region[8]

• Highest team total: 264/7 v. Hong Kong, 9 November 2014 at Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville[61]
• Highest individual score: 151, Tony Ura v. Ireland, 6 March 2018 at Harare Sports Club, Harare[62]
• Best individual bowling figures: 6/41, Chad Soper v. Hong Kong, 6 November 2016 at Mission Road Ground, Mong Kok[63]

Highest individual innings in ODIs[66]

Player	Score	Opposition	Venue	Year
Tony Ura	151*	Ireland	Harare	6 March 2018
Lega Siaka	109	Hong Kong	Townsville	9 November 2014
Kiplin Doriga	89*	Hong Kong	Dubai	8 December 2017
Mahuru Dai	76*	Hong Kong	Mong Kok	8 November 2016
Assad Vala	70	Hong Kong	Mong Kok	6 November 2016

Best bowling figures in an innings in ODIs[67]

Player	Score	Opposition	Venue	Date
Chad Soper	6/41	Hong Kong	Mong Kok	6 November 2016
Norman Vanua	4/24	Hong Kong	Harare	17 March 2018
Charles Amini	4/27	Hong Kong	Harare	17 March 2018
Norman Vanua	4/37	United States	Windhoek	27 April 2019
Norman Vanua	4/39	United Arab Emirates	Harare	9 March 2018

ODI record versus other nations[59]

Opponent	M	W	L	T	NR	First match	First win
v. Test nations
Ireland	1	0	1	0	0	6 March 2018
West Indies	1	0	1	0	0	8 March 2018
v. Associate Members
Hong Kong	8	4	4	0	0	8 November 2014	8 November 2014
Namibia	2	0	2	0	0	22 September 2019
Oman	2	0	2	0	0	14 August 2019
Scotland	6	1	5	0	0	6 October 2017	8 October 2017
United Arab Emirates	4	1	3	0	0	31 March 2017	2 April 2017
United States	3	1	2	0	0	27 April 2019	27 April 2019

Records complete to ODI #4210. Last updated 23 September 2019.

• Highest team total: 216/4 v. Philippines, 22 March 2019 at Amini Park, Port Moresby[68]
• Highest individual score: 107*, Tony Ura v. Philippines, 23 March 2019 at Amini Park, Port Moresby[69]
• Best innings bowling: 5/15, Damien Ravu v. Vanuatu, on 9 July 2019 at Faleata Oval No 3, Apia.[70]

T20I record versus other nations[60]

v. Test nations
Opposition	M	W	L	T	NR	First Match	First Win
Afghanistan	1	0	1	0	0	23 July 2015
Ireland	4	2	2	0	0	15 July 2015	15 July 2015
v. Associate Members
Bermuda	1	1	0	0	0	19 October 2019	19 October 2019
Kenya	1	1	0	0	0	27 October 2019	27 October 2019
Namibia	2	2	0	0	0	20 October 2019	20 October 2019
Nepal	1	1	0	0	0	17 July 2015	17 July 2015
Netherlands	2	1	1	0	0	24 October 2019	24 October 2019
Philippines	2	1	0	0	1	22 March 2019	22 March 2019
Samoa	2	2	0	0	0	8 July 2019	8 July 2019
Scotland	1	0	1	0	0	21 October 2019
Singapore	1	1	0	0	0	25 October 2019	25 October 2019
United Arab Emirates	3	0	3	0	0	12 April 2017
Vanuatu	5	5	0	0	0	22 March 2019	22 March 2019

Records complete to T20I #997. Last updated 2 November 2019.

• Most first-class runs: Assad Vala 559
• Most first-class wickets: Norman Vanua 16
• Highest individual score: Assad Vala 144* v. Namibia, 16–19 October 2016
• Highest team score: 311 v. Namibia, 16–19 October 2016
• Best bowling (innings): Loa Nou 5/49 v. Netherlands, 16–18 June 2015
• Best bowling (match): Lega Siaka 7/54 v. Namibia, 16–19 October 2016

• Highest team total: 455/9 v. Gibraltar, 18 June 1986 (Tournament record)[22]
• Highest individual score: 162 by T Souter v. Israel, 20 June 1986[73]
• Best innings bowling: 5/12 by W Maha v. Gibraltar, 18 June 1986[74]

• Highest team total: 572/7 v. New Caledonia, 31 August 2007 (world record)[13]
• Highest individual score: 162 by B Harry v. Israel, 20 June 1986[8]
• Best innings bowling: 8/27 by Mea Steven v. New Hebrides, 1979[8]