NEWS
Follow UsPapua New Guinea (PNG) finished the 2024 T20 World Cup as one of two teams to lose all their four matches — the other being Oman — and their head coach Tatenda Taibu admitted that, overall, his side fell well short of the target they had set for themselves before the tournament, which was to pick up at least two wins.
But reflecting on PNG’s campaign, Taibu, after the New Zealand defeat, asserted that the PNG players, having now gotten a taste of top level international cricket, know exactly the level they need to reach in order to compete with the big guns.
This edition of the T20WC saw PNG play their first international game against many top teams, including the likes of New Zealand and West Indies.
“First of all, I think our goals were to win at least two games, which we didn't manage to do. However, it's not the end of the world,” Taibu said after the New Zealand game.
“The boys had to learn the speed of top international cricket. And now that they've learned the speed and the spin of it, we will have a base where we can go back and start working towards our next tournament.
“So, it's very difficult to ask players to work hard when they actually don't know the speed of which to push themselves, or rather the spin as well. So now that they've had a test of that, they know what they need to work on and how hard they need to work on to get to the level where they can compete and win against players such as we've played today.”
Taibu, however, at the same time, admitted that it won’t be easy for PNG to rise up the ranks in spite of the talent they possess, because of one major factor: cricketing infrastructure in the country. Taibu singled out infrastructure, resources and equipment as the ‘base’ for any country to grow, and admitted that, as things stand, PNG sort of struggle in all three facets.
“Well, I think the base for any country or for any team is your infrastructure, your human resources, and your equipment. So, we struggle in all three departments,” Taibu said.
“To actually see the players playing the way they are doing, where we struggle with all those three departments which are the base of any cricketing team brings goose bumps to my hands. So, we have to work on that still. We still have to get our infrastructure better. We still have to get more players playing, which we have really improved over the last two years.
“And we need to get equipment’s - things like, normal things that you would think a national team would have, things like bowling machine, things like proper cricket balls to use, we struggle with a bit of that. So, when you see me not dejected when the players play the way they played and I know where we're coming from, I know that we can only get better from here.”
The 20-team nature of this T20WC gave PNG a rare opportunity to rub shoulders with the best sides in the world. Historically, the ICC have gatekept World Cups by limiting the number of teams participating in the tournament — case in point, the 10-team 50-over World Cup — but the 2024 T20WC has proven to be an eye-opener, in the sense that it’s shown that the gap between the full members and the associates is now closer than it’s ever been.
Taibu admitted that it will ‘take time’ for some of the associates to get to the level of full members, but asserted that they will only be able to do that with more exposure.
“I look at other sports and I look at other World Cups, not only cricket. And when you look at football World Cup, it is a proper World Cup because it's a lot of teams, it's a lot of countries. Cricket has got to be the same way, it's a proper World Cup,” Taibu said.
“And look, let's face it, it's going to take some time for teams like PNG or Associate countries to get to the speed of Test playing nations. But it was the case for all the teams that are playing now, the ones that are seasoned. New Zealand, for instance, took 26 years for them to win their first Test.”
The PNG head coach quoted the example of Afghanistan to make his point. 14 years ago, incidentally in the Caribbean, Afghanistan participated in their first ever ICC event. Back then, they were in a similar position to what PNG are in, currently. But fast forward to 2024, Afghanistan are not just stronger but are dark horses to win the entire competition.
“I remember walking in and no one looked at Afghanistan because they were just an Associate member side which was coming in and now everyone looks at Afghanistan because they've been given a chance and they have gotten the speed of international cricket.
“And if Papua New Guinea does the same and we don't ignore all these other teams that are showing that they are capable, you look at Canada, they played World Cup in 2011. And you look at Bermuda. If we don't ignore those countries, you look at Kenya, they managed to get to the semi-finals in the 2003 World Cup. So, if you don't ignore those teams, they will only get better. And then the more teams we have, the more it gives a proper definition of a World Cup.”
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