Big Stage

For Papua New Guinea, a Long Journey to Cricket’s Big Stage

Thousands turned up at the airport to welcome Papua New Guinea’s cricket team on that sunny day in 2019. They wore the team’s colors and carried its flag and cheered their returning heroes, the players and coaches who had just qualified the nation for cricket’s Twenty20 world championship for the first time.

More than a few people, in the crowd and in the team, were in tears.