PNG confident of success at EAP U17 Trophy

Papua New Guinea U17 coach Peter Moide believes that the ICC EAP U17 Trophy is an important event as part of his player's developments.

Talking to the ICC website, Moide said that this tournament forms an important part of his preparation for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2012.

What preparations have you made for the event?

Cricket PNG views the development of our elite junior cricketers as a high priority and as such our preparations for the ICCEAP U/17 Trophy have been significant.

Utilising the turf wicket facilities at Amini Park, as well as our brand new indoor sports centre for training, has allowed for significant improvement across our U17 playing squad.

A number of our players are also members of our national development squad, the Ghekko's and their exposure to current senior national players as well as the whole of our High Performance programs and staff (particularly our national Coaching Director Andy Bichel) has been of immense value.

We view the tournament and our opponents with the upmost respect and so our Boys have been in squad training for over 10 weeks following a Trial Event in April. The boys have played a number of inter-squad games on to prepare for the fierce competition in Vanuatu.

What have been your most memorable performances in recent times?

A portion of our squad comes from our very successful U/15 team who went to Indonesia in 2009 and performed well in the ICC EAP U/15 Trophy. Though that is a particularly fond memory what I think bodes well for our player is the camaraderie they share when they have been in training for this tournament. The boys are close friends and fierce competitors and the spirit they show will hold us in good stead for this strong competition.

How popular is cricket with youth in your country?

Cricket features significantly in the sports culture of PNG. In some regions it is not uncommon to see five or six games of cricket being played in one small village. Cricket allows our young boys and girls to play a safe and fun team sport and that is key to our games growing popularity.

We have also launched the largest school sports program in the country. The BSP (Bank South Pacific) Schools Kriket Program is operating now in 10 provinces and should smash the target of 50, 000 participants by the end of the year. We take kids through a detailed 12-week program of cricket education and this will have a huge impact on increasing participation and popularity of our game.

Do you dream of playing the World Cup?

The World Cup is the pinnacle of World Cricket. As a member of the High Performance Department at Cricket PNG I have been intimately involved in our Senior Teams preparation for World Cricket League 3 and potential World Cup qualification. Our Barramundi's are going to give that tournament a real shake and we have high hopes, but what I enjoy and focus a lot of my attention on is preparing our next Barramundi's for the next decades World Cup. Our young lads show great potential and it will be exciting to see how they cope with the pressure of international cricket in Vanuatu.

Our U/19's have been to the last 5 U/19 World Cups and have a current ranking of 12th in the world. We believe that a top 10 ranking is possible in 2012.

What are your team strengths and weaknesses?

Our players are technically very talented and highly skilled. What we will focus on is dominating a game and creating no opportunities for our opposition. We want to develop players with discipline who stick to game plan's and perform for the team.

This tournament will be a closely fought one and our team will be punished for silly errors so we hope to eradicate them from our game.

Who are your key players in the team?

We have a very strong squad and it is difficult to single out individual players. We are however looking for strong performances from Kabua Vagi Morea, Dogodoa Bau, Norman Vanua and Alan Joseph.

What is your knowledge of other teams playing in the event?

We have played a number of these countries at the U/15 level and expect a number of the same players to have made the step up to this U/17 tournament.

We are expecting our competitors to be very strong and our boys will have to be at the height of their skill and importantly concentration for us to emerge with the result that we expect.