Vanuatu Men’s National team Head Coach and High Performance Director, Shane Deitz, graciously took some time off from his busy training schedules with the national squad ahead of their visit to Malaysia for ICC WCL Division 4 in Malaysia, to answer few candid thoughts on his vision for Vanuatu Cricket and how the culture is in the local communities.
Vanuatu along with Jersey qualified from ICC WCL Division 5 in Benoni, South Africa in Sep 2017 and Shane discusses the current cricketing situation in the country and the challenges they face to grow the sport.
Read on for Shane Deitz “Unplugged”:
There has been significant growth of cricket in EAP countries especially PNG, Vanuatu & Fiji. How much Australian and New Zealand influence and support has been there over the years since we have heard quite a few times of equipment/kits being given and cricketers travelling to the countries for conducting coaching sessions??
“I think certain countries have developed well namely PNG and Vanuatu. Fiji on the other hand were in Division 3 at one stage and not in world cricket league now so we all hope they can regain their cricket program to that level again. Obviously they compete more with other sports namely rugby. I think the PNG story is great and have been unlucky not to play in a world cup but we hope that will happen in the near future. Vanuatu is a much smaller country and a lot less resourced too. To have now four players who have played first grade premier cricket in Melbourne and Adelaide just shows how far they have come in ten years with the resources and facilities we have here. PNG have had a long relationship with Australian cricket and this has helped accelerate their development. During the last four years they have competed in a very strong competition in South Australia which is close to a 2nd X1 state cricket concept and includes the Northern Territory state team and they have performed very well particularly in the shorter format. We are building some relationships with clubs – and with our players over there currently performing well, this will help to open doors for other players in the future. We would love the national team to tour more but due to costs it isn’t a viable option. From time to time, I think all countries get donated cricket equipment from Australia and New Zealand which we all appreciate a lot. Getting it here is tough sometimes but we hope to get more and the players and all the children’s faces light up when we get some gear and hand it out, it’s like Christmas.”
Any scope for ICC EAP to work towards conducting tournaments in age-level groups in the region much like what Asian Cricket Council is doing for U-16 and U-19 programs in the Asian region??
“We have U19CWC qualifiers but that is it. We would have to foot the bill for this and we just can’t afford it. If the ICC could put these on for us that would be great, and I think the standard of our U19s teams would improve having played more tournaments at a younger age. Logistically it isn’t easy here but I think it would improve the boys and girls getting international experiences at a younger age.”
It’s quite refreshing to see the indigenous talent in the EAP countries. How much support does Vanuatu Cricket get from the Government? Also, how is the culture for cricket in the local communities in terms of adopting the sport?
“We actually only get minimal support from the government which is disappointing as the team has represented the country brilliantly over the years – the people all know the players and are very proud of them. The cricket culture is there and growing due to the very hard work our development team put in. We go to schools weekly over four islands running school cricket competitions to plastic cricket for the beginners and beach cricket for something different. Most of the national players run these visits which gives it great credibility and great for kids to learn from the international players. Now you see cricket played in nearly every part of the country in the well developed areas its amazing to see that here in the Pacific.”
What is the landscape of U19 and Women’s cricket in Vanuatu?
“I have put a lot of focus on both these since taking over as High Performance Manager. Both teams have full time coaches who are the Mansale brothers, Andrew the current captain and Eddie who played cricket and football for Vanuatu. Andrew has completed his level 3 in Australia and Eddie level 2, so we really hope to see improvements over the next 5-10 years. The U19s are ranked second behind PNG and the girls lifted their ranking to third in the EAP region.”
Finally, Vanuatu in Division 4; how has been your journey so far, and how much are the players looking forward to travelling to Malaysia to try and qualify for Division 3??
“We are so excited for Division 4 and training hard. The boys are contracted full time and have been for a few years, so we will be ready physically and we hope to mentally handle the tournament. We had a month off after Division 5 so we have been going since around November last year. We have seven squad members in Australia playing so we will have some good preparation and hope to shock a few teams. These tournaments are tough, full of pressure as there is so much riding on the outcome, but we are quietly confident of giving a good showing and we will see what happens. There are some good countries and players competing, and no doubt we will be the lowest ranked team but that means there is less pressure on us as we have no expectations. We will go out to play hard, definitely play very entertaining cricket which I know people who will watch us will love to see the Vanuatu style.”
At the conclusion of the conversation, Shane was generous enough to let us know that Vanuatu National team will be available for any potential tours or matches in Asia post the conclusion of Division 4 on 6th May 2018. For any queries or clarifications on the same, kindly contact Shane Deitz at sdeitz@vanuatucricket.com.vu
