Philippines Team to Visit Fiji

Fiji will play two historic Twenty20 international matches against the Philippines cricket team when they stopover in Nadi next month.

The Philippines team will be en route to an international EAP Division 2 tournament in Samoa, but had a 15-hour layover in Fiji on Friday, April 1 and approached Cricket Fiji to provide them with some match practice.

"The call came in from the general manager of Philippines Cricket asking us if we could provide some competition and a venue for the team to play at while in Nadi," Cricket Fiji general manager Jon Symonds said.

"Of course I had to say yes because this gives the national players and other players from the Western Association a fantastic opportunity to play some international standard matches."

"We are looking forward to the day tremendously. The Philippines lack international experience and I'm sure our boys will be more than a handful in both games."

The touring side will play two Twenty20 matches that day at Central College in Lautoka against two nominated Fijian teams made up of senior squad members and players from the Western Cricket Association.

Philippines Cricket general manager Iain Sinclair said the EAP tournament will be the first time they had fielded a national team at an international level and they were grateful to Fiji for offering to host them beforehand.

"We are looking to get as much match practice and exposure to international competition prior to the tournament," Sinclair said.

"Whilst a number of touring sides visit Manila, we do not get that much international exposure and it is very hard to judge what standard we are at."

"We have a number of members of the group who have played cricket at a good level, these include our Captain Faisal Khan who has been a resident in the Philippines for 22 years but in his younger days played against a number of players who went on to represent Pakistan."

"I know all our players are really looking forward to our visit to Fiji albeit it will be very short."

Should the Philippines go on to win the EAP Division 2 tournament in Samoa, they will move through to the Division 1 tournament which will take place in Papua New Guinea in July and includes Fiji.

For further media enquiries or to arrange interviews please contact Cricket Fiji Communications Officer Grace Uhr on +679 330 4711 or +679 767 1525.