Fiji ready for EAP Trophy challenge

The Fiji Blues, the senior men's national cricket team, are in the final stages of their preparation for this year's East Asia - Pacific Cricket Trophy starting in Samoa next week.

The Joe Sorovakatini captained squad will leave for Samoa on Tuesday to take on seven other nations from the East Asia - Pacific region in a tournament that will feature both Twenty/20 and 50 over competitions.

"This tournament is an important part of our preparations for the World Cricket League Division 5 competition that we will play in Nepal next February," said High Performance Manager Steve Jenkin.

"This will be an important opportunity for players to show that they are capable of performing at an international level so I am expecting some good performances from the players."

"We will face some tough opposition from countries like PNG, Vanuatu and Japan so the players will have to be at their best to perform."

The first two days of play will be taken up with the Twenty/20 competition, where the eight teams have been broken into two groups of four teams each. Fiji has been grouped with tough opposition in Vanuatu, Samoa and Indonesia for the group stage.

If they finish top of the group they will then play the top team from the other group for the EAP Twenty20 championship.

After the completion of the Twenty20 competition teams will get down to playing a 50 over tournament.

Fiji will compete against the other World Cricket League countries - PNG and Japan - in a three way tournament that will see teams play each other twice.

The five non-World Cricket League teams will play their own round robin tournament with the top team helping its case for qualifying for the World Cricket League Division 8 tournament next year.