New Caledonia cricket team
Encyclopedia
The New Caledonia cricket team is the team that represents the French overseas territory of New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

 in international cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 matches. They are not currently a member of the International Cricket Council
International Cricket Council
The International Cricket Council is the international governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989.The...

, though they have taken part in various regional tournaments such as the Pacifica Cup
Pacifica Cup
The Pacifica Cup was an international cricket tournament contested in 2001 and 2002 by teams from the Pacific Islands.-First round:The eight participating teams were divided into two pools of four teams for the first round.-Pool A:...

 and the cricket tournaments of the South Pacific Games
South Pacific Games
The Pacific Games is a multi-sport event, much like the Olympics , with participation exclusively from countries around the South Pacific. It is held every four years and began in 1963, hosted by Suva, Fiji.- Concept :The idea of holding the South Pacific Games originated with Dr A.H...

.

They have had little success in these tournaments. Indeed, they have had essentially no success at all, as they have lost every single match they have played, twice conceding 500 runs to Papua New Guinea.

History

Cricket was introduced to New Caledonia by English missionaries. It is currently mostly played by women, though no women's national team is known to exist.

Pacifica Cup

The Pacifica Cup took place twice, in 2001 and 2002. The 2001 tournament was hosted in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. New Caledonia's tournament started badly with a 360 run defeat by Fiji, in which three Fijian batsmen retired after scoring centuries
Century (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a batsman reaches his century when he scores 100 or more runs in a single innings. The term is also included in "century partnership" which occurs when two batsmen add 100 runs to the team total when they are batting together. A century is regarded as a landmark score for...

 in their innings of 433/5. In their next match against Vanuatu, they restricted their opponents to 284/7 from their 50 overs, but still lost heavily when they were bowled out for 115 to lose by 169 runs. The first round concluded with a 309 run defeat by Tonga when they were bowled out for just 25.

The play-off stages didn't go much better for the New Caledonians, starting with a 231 run loss to the Cook Islands. They came up against Vanuatu in the seventh place play-off, and batted first, scoring 97. Their opponents reached this target inside 12 overs thanks to a quick-fire innings of 66 from Richard Tatwin to win by six wickets.

The 2002 Pacifica Cup took place in Apia, Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...

. New Caledonia started with a match against Vanuatu, which they lost by seven wickets. Their second match against the tournament hosts Samoa was lost by seven wickets when no New Caledonia batsman reached double figures.

Another comprehensive defeat, this time losing by 278 runs to Tonga continued their tournament, which concluded with a 314 run defeat by the Cook Islands, which saw Cook Islands bowler Dunu Eliaba take nine wickets in the New Caledonia innings, which he finished off with a hat-trick. New Caledonia thus finished seventh in the tournament.

South Pacific Games

The cricket tournament
Cricket at the 2003 South Pacific Games
Cricket at the 2003 South Pacific Games was contested by six teams. The gold medal was won by Papua New Guinea.-First round:The six participating teams were placed into one pool. Papua New Guinea won all five of their matches, including a match against New Caledonia where they scored more than 500...

 of the 2003 South Pacific Games
2003 South Pacific Games
The 2003 Pacific Games were held in Suva, Fiji from 28 June to 12 July 2003. They are also known as the XII South Pacific Games.The Games were the 12th Pacific Games to be held since the event's inception and were the 40th anniversary of their beginnings in 1963. It was also the third time in the...

 in Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

 started with New Caledonia taking on Samoa. As was becoming the case by this time, they lost, this time by 147 runs. The following match saw yet another comprehensive defeat for New Caledonia as they lost to the Cook Islands by 254 runs. Their third tournament match, against Fiji went much the same way, losing by ten wickets.

Vanuatu beat New Caledonia by 108 runs in their next tournament match, before a match against Papua New Guinea saw history made as Papua New Guinea scored the first total over 500 in international one-day cricket, winning the match by 468 runs. New Caledonia thus finished last in the tournament.

New Caledonia returned to international cricket competition in 2007 when they took part in the cricket tournament
Cricket at the 2007 South Pacific Games
Cricket at the 2007 South Pacific Games was contested by five teams. Papua New Guinea won the gold medal, Fiji won the silver, and Samoa won the bronze. Tonga and New Caledonia were the other participating nations.-Tournament:...

 of the 2007 South Pacific Games in Samoa. They started with a heavy defeat, losing to Fiji by 383 runs. Their second match continued their losing streak as Tonga beat them by nine wickets.

After a rest day, New Caledonia took on Papua New Guinea, who beat their own record for the highest score in an international cricket match by scoring 572/7 in 49 overs. They then bowled out New Caledonia for 62 to win by 510 runs. Both the Papua New Guinean score and the winning margin are records for international cricket. The tournament concluded for New Caledonia with a nine wicket defeat by Samoa, New Caledonia again finishing last.

South Pacific Games

  • 2003
    Cricket at the 2003 South Pacific Games
    Cricket at the 2003 South Pacific Games was contested by six teams. The gold medal was won by Papua New Guinea.-First round:The six participating teams were placed into one pool. Papua New Guinea won all five of their matches, including a match against New Caledonia where they scored more than 500...

    : 6th place
  • 2007
    Cricket at the 2007 South Pacific Games
    Cricket at the 2007 South Pacific Games was contested by five teams. Papua New Guinea won the gold medal, Fiji won the silver, and Samoa won the bronze. Tonga and New Caledonia were the other participating nations.-Tournament:...

    : 5th place
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