International Cricket Council (ICC)

The International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) made the announcement on Monday as women’s cricket features in the Games for the first time in 22 editions and cricket for only the second time ever, the first occasion being a men’s ODI competition in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, which was won by South Africa.

The ICC WT20 EAP ‘B’ Qualifier will see teams from Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and hosts Philippines compete in double round robin T20 format from the 1^st-7^th December, 2018.  

The winner of the ICC WT20 EAP ‘B’ Qualifier will advance to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup EAP Regional Final alongside Vanuatu and the Hebou PNG Barramundis in early 2019.  

Hosts, Philippines will head into the tournament as favourites after finishing ahead of Indonesia and Japan in their last encounter in 2017.  

In their fifth and final match of the week, the ICC WGDS, featuring some Sydney Thunder players, posted an impressive total of 8/138 off their allotted 20 overs with Chipo Tiripani (30) and Sterre Kalis (23) impressing with the bat again while former Australian Women’s Captain, Alex Blackwell, smashed 42 runs off just 22 balls in the middle order.

City Pharmacy PNG Lewas’ all-rounder, Veru Kila Frank, also made seven runs in the lower order.

Batting first, Sydney Thunder smashed the ICC WGDS around Blacktown Oval to post an imposing 1/200 off their allotted 20 overs. Stalenberg (100) was the star for the Thunder smashing a century while former Australian Women’s Captain, Alex Blackwell (51*) made an impressive unbeaten half century.

City Pharmacy PNG Lewas’ bowlers Kaia Arua (0/29) and Ravini Oa (0/32) were unable to pick up any wickets.  

The ICC announced that an independent assessment has found the bowling action of Nosiana Pokana to be illegal and, as such, the left-arm fast bowler has been suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect.

The assessment revealed that all his deliveries exceeded the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under the regulations.

This followed a recent inspection of the facilities at the venue.

This means Amini Park can stage international matches between Associate and Affiliate Members.

Amini Park was given the nod after the irrigation, field of play, change rooms, umpires’ rooms, media and officials’ rooms were upgraded.

CEO of Cricket PNG, Greg Campbell, was delighted at the news.

“This is a historic moment for CPNG and the East Asia Pacific for the ICC to grant international status to the home of cricket in PNG.

The EAP men’s team, captained by Vanuatu’s National Captain, Andrew Mansale, finished the 50 Over Competition in sixth place with no wins from five matches, while they finished a very respectable second place in the T20 Competition with three wins from five matches.    

The highlights were the three victories against very strong Australian Country Sides in Victoria (by 6 wickets), Western Australian (by 5 wickets) and New South Wales (6 wickets) in rain affected championships, which were EAP’s first victories in the ACCC since 2014.