Assad Vala (born 5 August 1987) is a Papua New Guinean

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er and the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the national side. A left-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

and

off spin Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right arm, right-handed spin bowling, spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal Delivery (cr ...

bowler, he has played for the

Papua New Guinea national cricket team The Papua New Guinea national cricket team, nicknamed the Barramundis, is the team that represents the country of Papua New Guinea in international cricket. The team is organised by Papua New Guinea Cricket Board, Cricket PNG, which has been a ...

since 2005.CricketArchive profile
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Early career

Born in Papua New Guinea in 1987, Assad Vala first represented Papua New Guinea at Under-19 level, playing in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh.Other matches played by Asad Vala
at CricketArchive He made his debut for the senior side at the

2005 ICC Trophy The 2005 ICC Trophy was a cricket tournament held in Ireland between 1 July and 13 July 2005. It was an international one-day tournament played over 50 overs per side between 12 Associate Members of the International Cricket Council. It served a ...

in Ireland, where he played his seven

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

matches. He returned to Under-19 level later in the year, playing in the Africa/East Asia-Pacific Under-19 Championship at

Willowmoore Park Willowmoore Park is a multi-purpose stadium in Benoni, South Africa. It is currently used mostly for cricket matches and hosted two matches during the 2003 Cricket World Cup The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup was the eighth Cricket World Cup, or ...

in Benoni, South Africa. In 2006, he played for a combined East Asia Pacific team in the Australian National Country Cricket Championship, an event he has repeated in 2007 and 2008. In 2007, he played in

Division Three The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the ...

of the

World Cricket League The ICC World Cricket League (WCL) was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status (i.e., teams of Associate status) administered by the International Cricket Council. All Associate Members of t ...

in Darwin and he represented his country at the

2007 South Pacific Games The 2007 South Pacific Games were held in Apia, Samoa, from 25 August to 8 September 2007. The Games were the thirteenth to be held since the inception of the South Pacific Games in 1963, and included traditional multi-sport event disciplines, su ...

, where he won a gold medal in the cricket tournament.

International career

He made his

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) debut for

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

on 8 November 2014 against Hong Kong in Australia. He made his

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

debut for Papua New Guinea against Ireland in the

2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier The 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, for the 2016 World Twenty20, was held from 6 to 26 July 2015. The tournament was hosted by both Ireland and Scotland. 51 matches were played among 14 nations, down from 72 matches among 16 nations previous ...

tournament on 15 July 2015. In June 2015 on his

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

debut, he scored a match-winning 124

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

for Papua New Guinea against the Netherlands in the 2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup. He scored three hundreds in his first four matches, also making centuries against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

(120) and

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

(144

). In February 2018, the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC) named Vala as one of the ten players to watch ahead of the

2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier The 2018 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place during March 2018 in Zimbabwe. It formed the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales. The top two te ...

tournament. In June 2018, at the Papua New Guinea Cricket Awards, he won the Tony Elly Medal for the best male player. In August 2018, he was named as the captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for Group A of the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 East Asia-Pacific Qualifier tournament. He was the leading run-scorer in Group A of the tournament, with 294 runs in six matches. In March 2019, he was named as the captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for the

Regional Finals In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

of the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 East Asia-Pacific Qualifier tournament. The following month, he was named captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for the

2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two The 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two was an international cricket tournament that took place in April 2019 in Namibia. It was contested between six teams; Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Papua New Guinea, the United States and tournament hos ...

tournament in Namibia. In June 2019, he was selected to represent the Papua New Guinea cricket team in the men's tournament at the

2019 Pacific Games The 2019 Pacific Games was the sixteenth edition of the Pacific Games. The Games were held in Apia, Samoa, returning there for the first time since 2007. It was the third time overall that the Pacific Games were held in Samoa. The event was init ...

. In September 2019, Vala was named as the captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for the

2019 United States Tri-Nation Series The 2019 United States Tri-Nation Series was the second round of the 2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 cricket tournament and took place in the United States in September 2019. It was a tri-nation series between Namibia, Papua New Guinea ...

. In the final match of the series, against

, he scored his first century in ODI cricket, with 104 runs from 114 balls. In September 2019, he was named as the captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for the

2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier The 2019 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament held during October and November 2019 in the United Arab Emirates to determine which teams would qualify for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament. The six teams finishing ...

tournament in the United Arab Emirates. Ahead of the tournament, the

(ICC) named him as the key player in Papua New Guinea's squad. He was the leading run-scorer for Papua New Guinea in the tournament, with 197 runs in eight matches. In November 2020, Vala was nominated for the ICC Men's Associate Cricketer of the Decade award. In August 2021, Vala was named as the captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for the

2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament, with the matches played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The West Indies were the defending champions, but were eventua ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vala, Assad 1987 births Living people Papua New Guinean cricketers Papua New Guinea One Day International cricketers Papua New Guinea Twenty20 International cricketers Place of birth missing (living people)