EAP Coach Tom Evans Visits Fiji

With less than a month to go before Cricket Fiji's first international tour for the year, the senior squad has received an extra boost with a visit from regional development manager Tom Evans.

Evans, who also coaches the East Asia Pacific representative team which includes several Fijian players, will be in Fiji for four days running his eye over the side as it prepares for the EAP Division 1 tournament in Papua New Guinea next month.

He will assist high performance manager Steve Jenkin with senior training both today (TUESDAY) and Thursday and is also using the trip to inspect the cricket facilities in Fiji.

Evans said this was his first trip to Fiji as part of his role with the International Cricket Council EAP division and said he was delighted with the chance to see firsthand was going on with cricket here.

"It's great to work with the players ahead of busy tournament year and to do some one-on-one training with them," Evans said.

"It's also been good to catch up with game development manager about his plans for school development and have a look at the facilities and what further options there might be."

"Obviously Cricket Fiji have got some good people in place who are doing right things, but there is still a lot of room for growth and development of the game here."

Evans is already well known to Fijian players, particularly captain Josefa Rika and Sakaraia Lomani who were in the EAP representative team he coached late last year.

Cricket Fiji chief executive Jon Symonds said both the staff and players would benefit from his visit.

"It's really good to have a coach from the EAP here and hopefully he'll make the most of his time here, work with national team and impart some of his knowledge on them," Symonds said.

"But more importantly he has also had a chance to review Cricket Fiji's development plan which is an integral part of our strategic plan for next three years."

"And of course there's nothing like being in a country and seeing firsthand what is being done here so he can give some feedback to the ICC EAP."

Evans is available for interview at national training both today and Thursday from 4pm at Albert Park. Media are welcome to attend for interviews and images.