Vanuatu Cricket had the pleasure to host Horowhenua Kapiti Cricket Association (HKC) from Friday August 30th to Wednesday September 4th in Port Vila as part of the men’s preparation for the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge and HKC’s pre-season program.
The four days featured two 50 over matches, a celebratory dinner and a lot of excitement for the VCA and the HKC boys as they made new friends, played cricket in new conditions and see cricket from different perspectives.
During their time in Vanuatu, the HKC team encountered some typical Vanuatu rain but even rain could not dampen the mood as the first of the two 50 over match kicked off at the Vanuatu Cricket Grounds (VCG) on Saturday 31st August. Vanuatu having the upper hand in the weather condition, won the first 50 over match. HKC came back strong in the second match on Tuesday September 3rd and gave Vanuatu a good fight.
During the day of the final 50 over match, David O’Brien, Horowhenua Kapiti Cricket Association CEO, and Nigel Brooke, Community Cricket Manager - Central Districts Cricket, handed over an enormous parcel of donated gear from the HKC team, Central district cricket in New Zealand and New Zealand Cricket. The gear was donated with the intention and purpose to “help develop the game locally and help get more children involved like the ones we visited at the beach and Vila East School,” stated HKC team in their statement.
Shortage of gear is an ongoing challenge for Vanuatu Cricket and the president of the VCA, Mark Stafford, received the gear and expressed his gratitude to HKC for the generous donation while giving assurance for the HKC team that the gear will help with developing cricket in Vanuatu.
“I would like to express sincere thank you to the HKC for choosing Vanuatu for their pre-season program and for their generous donation of the cricket gear. I would also like to acknowledge the central district cricket in New Zealand and New Zealand Cricket for their support and donating these gear to us (VCA).
“We have always struggled with having enough gear to run our development programs and these gear will assist us greatly with our ongoing cricket development programs in Port Vila and other parts of Vanuatu,” Stafford said.
In addition to the 50 over matches, Vanuatu Cricket hosted a dinner function at the Holiday Inn Resort Vanuatu, the naming rights sponsor for Vanuatu Cricket’s national men and women’s team, to celebrate Horowhenua Kapiti Cricket’s tour of Vanuatu which featured exchange of gifts and tokens of appreciation from both the VCA and HKC. The dinner also saw a heartfelt haka from HKC team captain to the Vanuatu men’s team traveling to Malaysia who were introduced and named by captain, Andrew Mansale on the night.
HKC’s tour of Vanuatu Cricket is the first of many and the VCA hopes that the installation of the new hybrid pitch will improve their cricket tourism program and result in more touring teams choosing Vanuatu as their cricket touring destination.
Vanuatu Cricket would like to acknowledge everyone who contributed to making the HKC tour of Vanuatu possible and thank everyone for their support.