The Papua New Guinea women's cricket team have dedicated their performances at the T20 World Cup qualification tournament in Scotland to former teammate Kopi John who passed away this week.
PNG women's cricketer, Kopi John, who passed away on the 27-08-2019 after a short illness. Photo: Cricket PNG
The PNG Lewas held a memorial service for Kopi John in Scotland on Thursday. She passed away on Tuesday back in Papua New Guinea.
Kopi John was a key player and top of the batting order for the Lewas for many years and played a part in the East Asia Pacific qualifying tournament in May, which secured the team their place among the eight countries seeking qualification in Scotland.
The PNG Lewas open their campaign this evening against Bangladesh.
If successful the Lewas will be the first Papua New Guinea team, mens or womens, ever to qualify for a world cup.
PNG are in group A which will see them taking on the hosts Scotland tomorrow and then the USA on Tuesday.
In Group B are Ireland Namibia, Netherlands and Thailand.
The top two teams from each pool advance to the semi-finals with the two grand finalists qualifying for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia, which begins in February.
Despite losing a warm up game against Ireland on Thursday by 70 runs the PNG women's coach Rarua Dikana said he is quietly confident the team will do well.
He said they will be taking things one game at a time.
The Lewas need to win at least two pool games to make they semis but he says they want to win three.
At the previous T20 World Cup qualifier in 2018Papua New Guinea lost to Bangladesh in their first group game but advanced to semis where they were beaten by Ireland.
Of the 14 players in the current png squad 11 took part in the last campaign. Only Gari Buruka, Narela Ila and Konio Oala are new, while Kaia Arua takes over as captain.
The PNG Women's Cricket Team seeking qualification to the 2020 T20 Cricket World Cup. Photo: Cricket PNG