Loa Nou (born 31 December 1987) from

Hanuabada Hanuabada is a coastal village in Papua New Guinea in the outskirts of the nation's capital, Port Moresby. It is the biggest village in the Motuan tribe and is often known by its locals as "HB." Hanuabada means "big village" (''hanua'' "village" ...

Village is a

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 ...

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. A right-handed batsman and right-arm fast medium pace bowler,Cricinfo profile
/ref> 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 2007 and is the opening bowler for his country. 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.

Biography

Born in

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Z ...

to parents Nou and Hane Loa in 1987. Loa Nou first represented

at Under-19 level, playing in the East Asia-Pacific Under-19 Championship 2007 as well as the 2008

Under-19 Cricket World Cup The ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup is an international cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) contested by national under-19 teams. First contested in 1988, as the Youth World Cup, it was not staged again u ...

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

. He made his debut for the senior side at the 2007

ICC World Cricket League Division Three ICC World Cricket League Division Three forms part of the World Cricket League (WCL) system. Like all other divisions, WCL Division Three is contested as a standalone tournament rather than as an actual league. The inaugural Division Three tournam ...

in Darwin,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Loa began playing cricket as a junior in the village Liklik Kricket Competition in 1998 at the age of 11 years. It was from here he began to gain recognition as a young force in the cricket competitions in Papua New Guinea. He continued his journey with cricket and it eventually brought him into the Under-19

n team as a young fast bowler. In 2007, he debuted in Division Three of the World Cricket League in Darwin against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

where he took 2 wickets. Later that year at the

South Pacific Games The Pacific Games (French: Jeux du Pacifique), is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from Oceania. The inaugural Games took place in 1963 in Suva, Fiji, and most recently in 2019 in Apia, Samoa. The Games were ...

, Loa played consistently by taking three wickets in each of PNG's victories and eventually the

played off for the gold medal against

, Loa helped

to a gold medal by taking 3/16. At the 2008 Under-19 World Cup he continued to play consistently and against

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, Loa bowled his best, picking up 4/63.Cricinfo profile
/ref> At the Under-19 World Cup in 2008, Loa was set as the 7th fastest bowler in the world for Under-19 and he is the fastest bowler in Papua New Guinea. After a four-year exile from international cricket, Loa returned in the

ICC Intercontinental Cup The ICC Intercontinental Cup was a first-class cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as part of its cricket development programme. It was designed to allow Associate Members of the ICC the chance to play first ...

verse

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

where he took 5/49 in the first innings and finished with six wickets in the match. Nou played a key role in securing Papua New Guinea's victory in this inaugural match.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nou, Loa 1987 births Living people Papua New Guinean cricketers People from the National Capital District (Papua New Guinea) Papua New Guinea Twenty20 International cricketers