The Pacific Games Council (PGC) have announced that the 2019 edition of the Pacific Games, to be held in Samoa, will feature a total of 26 sports disciplines which includes Cricket in the optional sports category.
Samoa were given the hosting rights for the 2019 Pacific Games in Dec 2017 as a replacement for Tonga, who withdrew from hosting the games due to financial concerns. PGC and the Tonga Association of Sport and National Olympic Committee have filed for a civil suit, seeking damages from the Tonga Government for the withdrawal of the games.
However, the total number of sports is getting reduced from total 28 disciplines from the 2015 Pacific Games to 26 in the 2019 edition. And it further will be trimmed to a maximum of 24 sports disciplines for the 2023 edition of the games, to be held in Solomon Islands, to make the hosting of the games more sustainable for hosts.
Samoa 2019 Pacific Games Sports disciplines:
Compulsory: Athletics, Basketball, Boxing, Football, Golf, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Triathlon, Rugby sevens, Sailing, Swimming, Volleyball (Indoor and Beach), Weightlifting, Va’a (Canoeing discipline)
Optional: Archery, Badminton, Cricket, Lawn bowls, Netball, Rugby League Nines, Powerlifting, Shooting, Squash and Touch Rugby.
The 2019 edition of the games in Samoa will be special for Cricket, as both the men’s and women’s categories will be contested as T20I games between the ICC Associate members in the region. It would be interesting to see if Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket would also send their representative teams to take part in the games as T20I team ranking points will be on offer.
Cricket was part of the 28 disciplines in the 2015 edition of the games held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in which Vanuatu won the Gold medal in the Men’s category and Samoa won the Gold medal in the Women’s category. Six countries participated in the Women’s category while four countries took part in the Men’s category.
Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa are due to take part in the ICC World T20 East Asia-Pacific Group “A” Qualifiers to be held in Fiji in Aug 2018, for which the schedule has been announced by ICC.
