Cricket PNG announces the Under 17 Gecko's squad

Cricket PNG has announced a 34 men PNG U17 Ghekkos squad that will be training for the next two months in preparation for the Pepsi ICC East Asia-Pacific U17 Cricket Championship to be held in Fiji from 27th to 29th August 2012.

The squad is made up of talented young boys from the local Port Moresby competition and a young player Ruma Igua from Lae. The squad also has Nigel Boge and Mea Jimmy who last toured with the Ghekkos to Vanuatu in 2010 where they went through the tournament unbeaten to bring the trophy home.

The Ghekkos squad will be training three days a week in preparation for the Fiji tournament with a few trial games to be played before the announcement of the final team.

The Ghekkos are the current Under 17 East Asia-Pacific champions having won the tournament in Vanuatu 2010. The EAP U17 tournament has proved to be a success for Cricket PNG as this is the stepping stone for potential players to be identified to progress to the next age group and further on to try to stake their claim to earn a PNG Barramundi "Baggy Black".

The tournament will be played in the Twenty20 format and the Ghekkos will be up against Vanuatu and Fiji. The players named are all junior players who have been playing in a 30 over competition in thPNG and they should adapt very well to the shorter version of the code.

There are currently a number of players who have been training with the PNG Hebou Garamuts (U19) over the last 2 months. These players have also been playing in the Hebou Shield with their respective teams and have already been exposed to a high standard of cricket playing against the current Barramundi?s and Garamuts players. This puts them in good stead and gives them much needed experience to take with them to the EAP U17 Championship.