The New Caledonia cricket team is the team that represents the French overseas territory of

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

in international

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 ...

matches. They are not currently a member of the International Cricket Council, though they have taken part in various regional tournaments such as the

Pacifica Cup The Pacifica Cup was an international cricket tournament contested in 2001 and 2002 by teams from the Pacific Islands. 2001 tournament The 2001 tournament was played in Auckland, New Zealand. Qualifying match Eighth ranked vs Ninth ranked. F ...

and the cricket tournaments of the South Pacific Games. They have had essentially no success at all, as they have lost every single match they have played, twice conceding 500 runs to Papua New Guinea.

History

Cricket was introduced to New Caledonia by English

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

. It is currently mostly played by women.

Pacifica Cup

The Pacifica Cup took place twice, in 2001 and 2002. The 2001 tournament was hosted in Auckland, New Zealand. New Caledonia's tournament started badly with a 360 run defeat by

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 ...

, in which three Fijian batsmen retired after scoring centuries in their innings of 433/5. In their next match against Vanuatu, they restricted their opponents to 284/7 from their 50 overs, but still lost heavily when they were bowled out for 115 to lose by 169 runs. The first round concluded with a 309 run defeat by Tonga when they were bowled out for just 25. The play-off stages didn't go much better for the New Caledonians, starting with a 231 run loss to the Cook Islands. They came up against Vanuatu in the seventh place play-off, and batted first, scoring 97. Their opponents reached this target inside 12 overs thanks to a quick-fire

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...

of 66 from Richard Tatwin to win by six wickets.Scorecard
of New Caledonia v Tonga, 8 February 2001 at Cricket Archive The 2002 Pacifica Cup took place in Apia, Samoa. New Caledonia started with a match against Vanuatu, which they lost by seven wickets. Their second match against the tournament hosts Samoa was lost by seven wickets when no New Caledonia batsman reached double figures. Another comprehensive defeat, this time losing by 278 runs to Tonga continued their tournament, which concluded with a 314 run defeat by the Cook Islands, which saw Cook Islands bowler Dunu Eliaba take nine wickets in the New Caledonia innings, which he finished off with a hat-trick. New Caledonia thus finished seventh in the tournament.2002 Pacifica Cup
at CricketEurope

South Pacific Games

The cricket tournament of the

2003 South Pacific Games The 2003 South Pacific Games were held in Suva, Fiji from 28 June to 12 July 2003. They are also known as the XII South Pacific Games. The Games were the 12th ''South Pacific Games'' to be held since the event's inception and were the 40th annive ...

started with New Caledonia taking on Samoa. As was becoming the case by this time, they lost, this time by 147 runs. The following match saw yet another comprehensive defeat for New Caledonia as they lost to the Cook Islands by 254 runs. Their third tournament match, against Fiji went much the same way, losing by ten wickets. Vanuatu beat New Caledonia by 108 runs in their next tournament match, before a match against Papua New Guinea saw history made as Papua New Guinea scored the first total over 500 in international one-day cricket, winning the match by 468 runs. New Caledonia thus finished last in the tournament.Points table for the 2003 South Pacific Games cricket tournament
at SportingPulse New Caledonia returned to international cricket competition in 2007 when they took part in the cricket tournament of 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 ...

in Samoa. They started with a heavy defeat, losing to Fiji by 383 runs. Their second match continued their losing streak as Tonga beat them by nine wickets. After a rest day, New Caledonia took on Papua New Guinea, who beat their own record for the highest score in an international cricket match by scoring 572/7 in 49 overs. They then bowled out New Caledonia for 62 to win by 510 runs. Both the Papua New Guinean score and the winning margin are records for international cricket. The tournament concluded for New Caledonia with a nine wicket defeat by Samoa,Scorecard
of Samoa v New Caledonia, 1 September 2007 at Cricket Archive with New Caledonia again finishing last.
at Cricket Archive

Tournament history

Pacifica Cup

*2001: 8th place *2002: 7th place

Pacific Games

*1979: 6th place *1987: 4th place *1991: 6th place *

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

: 6th place *

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

: 5th place *

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

: 4th place *

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

: 4th place *

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

: 4th place

References

{{National cricket teams Cricket in New Caledonia National cricket teams

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 ...

New Caledonia in international cricket