PNG cricketers ready to resume domestic competition

Papua New Guinea's cricketers are counting down their return to the crease following the end of the country's Covid-19 State of Emergency.

The Barramundis and Lewas have spent the past few months keeping fit in isolation and sharing their workout videos and results with each other on social media.

Barramundis head coach Joe Dawes, who will complete two weeks of self-isolation on Tuesday after returning from Australia, said yesterday was the first time the players could all come together as a big group.

"Four weeks ago we were able to start training in small groups so we had pods of four going in - both the men and the women throughout the week doing some training," he said.

"So we sort of got contact time three of four times a week with each of the squads, which was good and then as of today (Wednesday) they've lifted the State of Emergency up here in PNG and our two squads can start training as a squad as of today, which is exciting to get them all together again."

The Barramundis were originally scheduled to host a one day international tri-series against Nepal and the United Arab Emirates in Port Moresby this month before it was postponed because of Covid-19.

But Joe Dawes said things on the local front were looking up.

"In July we're going to have our two domestic competitions," he said.

"The CPNG Smash has been running for the last couple of years...with four franchises and it's grown in interest and excitment each year.

"This year we're also running a new competition which we call the Izuzu National Cup, which is a 50 over competition. With our ODI stuff we're just really trying to improve our performances in 50 over cricket. It makes it very hard for the local players when there's no 50 over cricket here."

The Barramundis are set to find out next month whether the Men's T20 World Cup in Australia will go ahead later this year but Dawes isn't holding his breath.

"We've got a tournament in September in Namibia and Namibia are still holding hopes that that may go ahead which would be exciting and we need to obviously reschedule the one that we should be playing it now with Nepal and the UAE," he said.

"But I think the big hurdle is still going to be the cost of the 14-day isolation going into countries."

"I think the World Cup's a different thing because Australia will be trying to get 15 teams into the country. That will be a major achievement with everything, when you read overnight that...parts of the world are still getting 10,000 cases a day".

The prospect of a delayed World Cup would be enough to get most people down but Dawes is choosing to focus on the positives.

"At the end of the day it will happen when it happens. You and I can't make that decision - it's way above our paygrade - so we will just wait and see when we're told and whenever it comes we'll make sure we're prepared.

"The other way I'm looking at it is if we get an extra four months or 12 months to prepare well that would just mean that we can go into that tournament in an even better position that we would do in October and November."