They created history after being the first local cricket team to qualify for a world cup, a milestone for a sport that has been in the country for more than 120 years, much longer than rugby has.
When securing the feat, the under-19 cricket team had been put under the international spotlight as they had also for the first time took part in the East Asia Pacific U19 World Cup qualifiers held in Blenheim, New Zealand defeated the U19 Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu teams.
While the sport is lesser known in the country compared with netball or rugby, it is the second most popular sport in the world with a great following, second to soccer.
The origins of the sport in the country dates back to the 1880s, as the sport was mostly spread worldwide through the British in the colonial period.
Philip Snow, Fiji’s captain to the 1948 New Zealand tour, in his book titled “Cricket in the Fiji Islands” wrote that the sport was brought in by Sir Edward Wallington, a staff of then Governor, Sir William Des Voeux, who served in the governor’s position from 1880-1885.
Des Voeux had encouraged the former Sherbone and Oxford eleven’s player to teach the rudiments of the game to the iTaukei people.
It was later that a Fijian team made up mostly of expatriates made the tour of New Zealand under the captaincy of Hon. J.S. Udal, then Fiji’s Attorney General.
The year 1902 saw major changes to the sport as the Levuka Cricket Club, the first local cricket club was established on January 2.
The club was based at Vagadaci, Levuka where Prince George later crowned King George V played a game against LCC when he was a midshipman on board the H.M.S Bacchante.
Snow also indicates in his book that a team from Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) had been in our shores in 1933 in the hope of scheduling a match with Fiji on their way home from touring Australia and NZ but this was not possible as the sanctioned match had been cancelled because of rain.
The club owns Lord’s Cricket Ground and was founded in 1787 although their website claims a much earlier conception in the early 18th century. MCC was formerly the governing body of cricket worldwide and continues to revise the laws of the sport as the official copyright holder having revised the laws first in 1788.
Snow said locals had been quick to learn the sport considering the closest game they had to cricket was tiqa. Rod Ewins in his website Just Pacific described tiqa or ulutoa as a throwing game played during the sprouting of yams where the reeds (4ft long) used have hard wood heads called ulutoa, a relic of ancient phallic worship.
Tiqa was played by throwing the reed from the forefinger with the winner being who can throw the furthest. Snow said the game aided the locals in the sport of cricket as it was easy for them to hit the wicket when bowling.
Since then the sport has grown to be loved by many, amassing young individuals with the potential to withstand long hours of fielding and those with a good arm for batting.
Now the parent organisation Cricket Fiji has nine affiliated associations namely the West, Suva, Labasa, Komo, Moce, Ono i Lau, Lakeba, Kabara and Namuka i Lau Cricket Associations.
Cricket Fiji CEO Inoke Lesuma said the U19 team’s achievement in February had been a motivation for young cricket enthusiasts to be more engaged in the sport.
Queried on the event, he was only too happy to share more about the players and what it meant for the organisation.
“We had been preparing for the past two to three years and taking players from the junior grade with the senior men’s team so they can get a feel of competition at that level. For these players some of them were going into the tournament scoring 60-70 runs and some taking three wickets,” he said.
He added that the experience had served the team well going up against the Pacific cricket giants, teams they have never beaten before at that grade level.
“Fiji had never beaten PNG and Vanuatu in the U19 grade but heading into the tournament we believed that this was the team to beat. It wasn’t until we beat PNG that we started getting people’s attention and then we beat Vanuatu and then finally Samoa.
“When they won their first game they didn’t want to celebrate, they said they would take each game as it came. It wasn’t until they beat Samoa that it finally kicked in. When we went into the dressing room you could see tears start to stream down their faces,” he said.
He added that the team had shown a class of obedience to the teachings of the sport that contributed to their historical win.
“To me the good thing about this team is that the boys did what they were told to do. The bottom line of their success was listening to the coach.
“I think it was all down to commitment and discipline for them. You could tell that they put the team first and individual later. Since the tournament the boys are more mature compared to when they went in terms of their awareness of the game and the experience gained, now we are on the road to the world cup and two months out from the tournament,” he said.
PNG had been tipped as tournament favourites and the national team had the odds stacked against them. Opposition had won the toss and opted to bat first going all out for 133 off 36.5 overs. Fiji chased and passed PNG’s total with five wickets in hand.
Fiji secured another five wicket win over Vanuatu after winning the toss and sending opposition to bat first. Vanuatu struggled and succumbed to a ruthless Fiji team going all out for 96 in just 23.1 overs. Captain Saimoni Tuitoga guided the team to a win after having lost five early wickets surpassing Vanuatu in 37.3 overs.
The team sealed their position at the top of the table as well as a place in the U19 wold cup after defeating Samoa by nine wickets. Fiji sent the game to an early finish after bowling Samoa all out for just 92 runs. With only a wicket taken Fiji cruised to victory securing more runs than the opposition.
With most of the players leaving their island homes to travel to Viti Levu, they are bound to face trials.
“For some of the players it’s hard because most of them are here with relatives. They came here from the islands to study but they had the passion and the willingness to do their country proud,” he said.
He added that the federation continues to keep tabs on the players who are currently at school and from time to time scouts for players that could potentially join their junior high performance programme.
“For those of them that are in school, we make sure that they attend school and that they do well in their studies.
“Moving forward, 50 per cent of this team won’t be eligible for U19 after the tournament, so we have to get through the next pool of players to join. Next year we have planned to have an U17 competition to be able to search for talent and potentially some of them could join the U19 team,” Lesuma said.
The U19 Cricket World Cup is scheduled for January 22 – February 14 2016 in Bangladesh.
The team is expected to travel to New Zealand and later Sri Lanka before participating in the world event.
