Vanuatu Cricket National team is undergoing intensive training ahead of their international friendly with Tatts Club from Australia.
The international that will be held in Port Vila from August 5-13 is part of preparations for the World Cricket League in South Africa.
National Head Coach and High Performance Manager of Vanuatu Cricket Association, Shane Deitz said the players have full time contracts so they have been preparing all year.
He said the team trains between 15 to 20 hours per week on all cricket skills, strength and conditioning.
Deitz said early in the year they won the East-Asia Pacific qualifier in Australia so their next step is to South Africa.
The Vanuatu Cricket Association announced its 14-man squad yesterday for the game against Tatts and for the World Cup League.
Deitz said the selection of the final squad was based on performances over part tours, club cricket performance and attitude at training.
When asked about how confident his team is ready for the two games, Deitz said it is too early to predict but they expect to be competitive and Vanuatu will play well in those games.
He said their match against Tatts Cricket club is a practice game and unfortunately they will miss four of their key players.
He said three of their players are in Samoa for the U-19 World Cup Qualifier and one is studying in Australia.
Deitz said the focus of the team now is to improve in the areas that they need to from last year’s Division 5 tournament in United Kingdom.
“We have an athletic skilful team but compared to some of the other countries our game sense and ability to handle pressure needs to improve.
“We have done more practice towards these areas and we have ten days in South Africa to prepare for the tournament,” he said.
Deitz said one of the challenges they face is finance as cricket needs good facilities and lots of equipment.
But that does not stop them from achieving their goals.
Deitz said some of the goals they are achieving are attracting over 20,000 participants to become involved with cricket, conduct programs in schools and have over 30 staff members.
“As an international side the team in the past ten years has gone from not being involved in world cricket league to now being ranked 32 in the world and in Division 5,” he said.
Deitz said one of the greatest moments for the team was when they defeated Papua New Guinea in the final of the Pacific Games in 2015.
The World Cricket League Division 5 will be held in Binoni, South Africa from September 3-9, 2017.
Photo supplied. Caption: Team Vanuatu celebrating victory in Bendigo, Australia earlier this year.