{"id":43516,"date":"2025-06-16T12:42:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T23:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/talamua.com\/?p=43516"},"modified":"2025-06-16T12:42:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T23:42:01","slug":"samoa-competing-in-inaugural-pacificaus-sports-cricket-invitational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talamua.com\/?p=43516","title":{"rendered":"Samoa Competing in Inaugural PacificAus Sports Cricket Invitational"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Apia, Samoa \u2013 16 June 2025<\/strong> &#8211; Samoa\u2019s National Women\u2019s Cricket team is competing in the Inaugural PacificAus Sports Cricket Invitational that started in Papua New Guinea in the weekend. The team is battling against an Australian Indigenous team, and teams from Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.<\/p>\n<p>Captain Tuaoloa Helen Semau of Vailuutai, Falelatai and Iva Savaii said the team is \u201cincredibly excited and honoured to be part of the Pacific Invitational Tournament. Competing against strong teams like the Australian Indigenous Women\u2019s Team, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu is both a challenge and a privilege we embrace wholeheartedly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an amazing opportunity for us to test ourselves and grow as a team. We\u2019ve been training hard, and the spirit within the squad is strong. We\u2019re not just here to participate &#8211; we\u2019re here to compete, represent Samoa with pride, and show the progress we\u2019ve made in our cricket journey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Samoa National Women\u2019s team is currently ranked 45<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0and prior to COVID-19 it had been ranked 16<sup>th<\/sup> in the world. The Invitational presents an opportunity for the team to face up against old rivals PNG and Vanuatu.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-43518\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talamua.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Samoa-Cricket-Trophy.jpg?resize=740%2C710&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Samoa Cricket Trophy\" width=\"740\" height=\"710\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talamua.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Samoa-Cricket-Trophy.jpg?w=1152&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talamua.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Samoa-Cricket-Trophy.jpg?resize=300%2C288&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talamua.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Samoa-Cricket-Trophy.jpg?resize=1024%2C983&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talamua.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Samoa-Cricket-Trophy.jpg?resize=768%2C737&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talamua.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Samoa-Cricket-Trophy.jpg?resize=24%2C24&amp;ssl=1 24w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m really happy about the squad we\u2019ve assembled for this Pacific Invitational, especially with the inclusion of our young talents from the U19 Women\u2019s Team \u2013 Avetia Mapu, Olive Lefaga Lemoe, Angel Sootaga So, Masina Faimafili Tafea and Norah Jade Salima,\u201d said Coach Perelini Mulitalo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis tournament will be an invaluable experience for them, and it is a big step forward in our pathway for women\u2019s cricket in Samoa. Bringing in youth adds fresh energy, and it also signals the growth and future of our program. We are not only building for now\u2014we are building for sustained success in the years to come.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is going to be a tough competition, but these young players bring new strengths and fearless intent that will boost our team. I am proud of how far they\u2019ve come and excited to see them rise to this challenge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese types of tournaments are so important for women\u2019s cricket in the Pacific. They push us to raise our standards and inspire the next generation back home. Win or lose, we\u2019ll leave everything on the field and carry our flag with pride.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Carol Agafili, a fresh addition to the team is feeling calm and confident ahead of the matches and will be another strong addition to the team.<\/p>\n<p>The T20 tournament is supported through the Australian Government\u2019s PacificAus Sports program, which creates opportunities for Pacific athletes, coaches, officials and administrators to access high performance training and elite competition.<\/p>\n<p>Australia\u2019s High Commissioner to Samoa, HE Will Robinson said, \u201cthe Australian Government is proud to partner with the Samoa International Cricket Association to help the Samoan team to attend the inaugural PacificAus Sports Cricket Invitational. Manuia le fa\u2019amoemoe Samoa!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Invitational builds on previous investment in Samoa cricket from the Australian Government, with PacificAus Sports supporting a visit to Samoa from Australian cricket legend Cathryn Fitzpatrick last year to support the U19 women\u2019s team prepare for the T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apia, Samoa \u2013 16 June 2025 &#8211; Samoa\u2019s National Women\u2019s Cricket team is competing in the Inaugural PacificAus Sports Cricket Invitational that started in Papua New Guinea in the weekend. The team is battling against an Australian Indigenous team, and teams from Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. Captain Tuaoloa Helen Semau of Vailuutai, Falelatai and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":43517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,5293,5292],"class_list":["post-43516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-featured","tag-invitational-in-png","tag-samoa-womens-cricket-team"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Samoa Competing in Inaugural PacificAus Sports Cricket Invitational - Talamua Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/talamua.com\/?p=43516\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Samoa Competing in Inaugural PacificAus Sports Cricket Invitational - Talamua Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Apia, Samoa \u2013 16 June 2025 &#8211; Samoa\u2019s National Women\u2019s Cricket team is competing in the Inaugural PacificAus Sports Cricket Invitational that started in Papua New Guinea in the weekend. 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