DISTRICT cricket club Nightcliff's international recruiting drive has resulted in Papua New Guinea representative players Vadi Vani Moreau and Jacob Mado joining the Tigers this season.
Moreau, 23, a right-hand opening bat and Mado, 18, a left-arm fast medium bowler, today make their A-grade debuts against Waratahs at Nightcliff Oval.
Both players were sourced from PNG Cricket with the promise of regular matches on turf wickets, a situation which does not exist in their hometown of Port Moresby.
Concrete wickets covered with coir matting -- a throwback to Darwin 40 years ago -- has restricted PNG's move into international cricket.
Mado bowled against the best young players from the West Indies, South Africa and India in the U19 World Cup in Malaysia last month.
"We (PNG) need to play more cricket on turf wickets and this is a great opportunity for us,'' he told the Northern Territory News.
"We have an eight-club competition in Port Moresby and it is all on concrete. The standard in other countries is very high. We need to get up towards them.''
Nightcliff skipper Mark Hatton said the two players would add much-needed depth with their batting and bowling skills.
"From first appearances they should fit in well in the competition,'' Hatton said.
"He (Moreau) will open the batting in line with our charter with PNG to foster him in that role.
"And Jacob opened the bowling for the PNG under-19 side in this year's World Cup and that will be his role with Brad (Hatton) this week.
"We were a bit short on depth last week and getting Vadi and Jacob means we can filter blokes down through the grades to improve all the sides.'' |
