6 Dec 2013

Sport: PNG cricketers lament rain, insist team is improving

12:32 pm on 6 December 2013

Papua New Guinea cricket coach Peter Anderson says their achievements at the World Twenty20 qualifier show the team is getting better, but they only have themselves to blame for missing out on the World Cup.

The Barramundi's were in the so-called pool of death in the UAE and recorded milestone wins over heavyweights such as the Netherlands and Namibia but came up short in their winner takes all clash against Hong Kong.

Peter Anderson admits they have no excuses but says some freak weather conditions didn't help their cause.

""

We're sitting in the middle of the desert and the groundsman is saying in 215 one day internationals and five test series they've never lost a day of rain to cricket and we happened to get against Denmark which, not being disrespectful, were pretty well the easybeats in the tournament and that was washed out. The Afghanistan team I'm pretty confident to say we had them over the barrel and the Duckworth Lewis intervened and really put them in a stronger position yet it still got down to the last ball.

PNG head to Adelaide shortly to finish their South Australian Premier League schedule before heading to New Zealand in January for the 2015 World Cup qualifiers.