The Samoan women's national cricket team, nicknamed the ''Nafanua'', represents the country of

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

in international

women's cricket Women's cricket is the team sport of cricket when played by woman, women. Its Laws of cricket, rules are almost identical to those in the game played by men, the main change being the use of a smaller cricket ball, ball. Women's cricket is b ...

. It is organised by the game's governing body in the country, the Samoa International Cricket Association (SICA). Although women's cricket has a long history in Samoa, the national team was only formally organised in 2010, with assistance from a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

association,

Auckland Cricket The Auckland cricket team represent the Auckland Region, Auckland region and are one of six New Zealand domestic First class cricket, first class cricket teams. Governed by the Auckland Cricket Association they are the most successful side havi ...

.(15 March 2012)
"Samoan women preparing for big challenge"
– Auckland Cricket. Retrieved 30 June 2015. The team has often included Samoan expatriate players based in Australia and New Zealand (including some who have played for state or provincial teams), which has presented difficulties in training. Samoa's first regional tournament came later in 2010, and it has since regularly participated in

ICC East Asia-Pacific ICC East Asia-Pacific is the International Cricket Council region responsible for administration of the sport of Cricket in East Asia and the Pacific area; Oceania. The ICC EAP was founded in 1996. It is subordinate to the International Cricket ...

events, generally ranking behind only

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

in the region. The women's team's most notable achievement has been winning the gold medal in the women's tournament at the

2015 Pacific Games The 15th Pacific Games, also known as Port Moresby 2015 or POM 2015, was held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, from 4 to 18 July 2015. It was the fifteenth staging of the Pacific Games as well as the third to be hosted in Port Moresby. More tha ...

. The team is currently coached by Ian West, an Englishman who gained Samoan citizenship through his wife, and subsequently played for the Samoan men's team. In April 2018, the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

(ICC) granted full

Women's Twenty20 International Women's Twenty20 international (WT20I) is the shortest form of women's international cricket. A women's Twenty20 international is a 20 overs-per-side cricket match between two of the International Cricket Council (ICC) members. The very firs ...

(WT20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

matches played between Samoa women and another international side since 1 July 2018 have the full WT20I status.

History

Cricket has been played in Samoa since the 19th century, when it was introduced by British traders and missionaries. It flourished despite a ban during the period of the German protectorate, from 1900 to 1914. Historically, the sport has been most popular when played under the modified rules known as '' kilikiti''. However, since the early 2000s, when Samoa gained affiliate membership of the

(ICC) and its men's national team debuted internationally (in 2000 and 2001, respectively), the standard form of cricket has begun to replace ''kilikiti'' in popularity.Andy Bull (27 January 2010)
"Cricket in Samoa: It's just not kilikiti"
– ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. Retrieved 30 June 2015. The Samoan women's team played its first international matches in February 2010, when

Fiji Fiji, 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 of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

toured to play a three-match series at

Apia Apia () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Samoa. It is located on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa's second-largest island. Apia falls within the political district (''itūmālō'') of Tuamasaga. The Apia Urban A ...

's Faleata Oval (in the Tuanaimato area).Other women's matches played by Samoa Women
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 30 June. Fiji were also playing their first internationals. A major impetus for the establishment of a woman's team was its status as a requirement for associate membership of the ICC, to which SICA aspires. Samoa, captained by Perelini Mulitalo, went on to win the series 3–0, and consequently qualified as the third team (after

and

) for the 2010 EAP Trophy in Japan, the team's first major tournament. Samoa went on to lose all three of its matches at the EAP Trophy, a 50-over tournament, with their closest game being a 12-run loss to Japan in the qualifying final. Their captain there was Mindy Hodgson, a former representative of the

Wellington Blaze The Wellington Blaze is the women's representative cricket team for the New Zealand city of Wellington. They play their home games at Basin Reserve. They compete in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield one-day competition and the Women's Super Smash ...

in New Zealand domestic cricket. However, the Samoans were more successful at their next regional tournament, the 2012 EAP Women's Championship in

Port Vila Port Vila ( ; ), or simply Vila (), is the capital of Vanuatu and its largest city. It is on the island of Efate, in Shefa Province. The population was 49,034 as of the 2020 census. In 2020, the population of Port Vila formed 16.3% of the ...

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

. That tournament was played using the

format, with the winner progressing to the 2013 World Twenty20 Qualifier in Ireland). The three teams from the 2010 tournament were joined by the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

, Fiji, and

. Samoa won all of its group-stage matches (played only against the three newcomers), but lost in the semi-final against Papua New Guinea, eventually placing third after defeating Vanuatu in the third-place playoff. At the 2014 EAP Women's Championship in Japan (a qualifier for the 2015 World Twenty20 Qualifier), Samoa again placed third after losing a semi-final to Papua New Guinea, with their opponent in the third-place playoff being the Cook Islands. The team's tournament was marked by several instances of individual brilliance, most notably an innings of 104 (off 74 balls) by Moelagi Tuilagi in the playoff, the first century in an EAP Twenty20 event. Samoa's captain,

Auckland Hearts The Auckland Hearts is the women's representative cricket team for the New Zealand region of Auckland. They play their home games at Eden Park Outer Oval. They compete in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield one-day competition and the Women's S ...

player Regina Lili'i, was named both player of the tournament and captain of the team of the tournament. Lili'i was one of three Samoan players with experience in the New Zealand

State League A state league is a level of competition in Sport in Australia, Australian sport directly below that of a national league. Most of these competitions are based in a single States and territories of Australia, state or territory, and from this the te ...

, the others being Hana Mauafu (

Canterbury Magicians The Canterbury Magicians is the women's representative cricket team for the New Zealand region of Canterbury. They play their home games at Hagley Oval, Christchurch. They compete in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield one-day competition and the ...

) and

Madeleine Chapman Madeleine Elsie Chapman (born 16 March 1994) is a New Zealand editor, journalist and author, and the current editor of ''The Spinoff'' and former editor of ''North & South (New Zealand magazine), North & South''. Chapman co-wrote the autobiograp ...

(

). , one unofficial ranking system placed Samoa 27th in the world, behind

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. In July 2015, Samoa won the gold medal in the women's tournament at the

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 ...

, becoming the first country outside of Papua New Guinea to win gold in Pacific Games cricket. In December 2020, the ICC announced the qualification pathway for the

2023 ICC Women's T20 World Cup The 2023 Women's T20 World Cup was the eighth edition of Women's T20 World Cup tournament. It was held in South Africa between 10 February and 26 February 2023. The final took place at Cape Town. Australia won their sixth and third consecutiv ...

. Samoa were named in the

2021 ICC Women's T20 World Cup EAP Qualifier The 2021 ICC Women's T20 World Cup EAP Qualifier was a cricket tournament that was scheduled to be played in Samoa in September 2021. The matches would have been played as Women's Twenty20 Internationals (WT20Is), with the top team progressing t ...

regional group, alongside seven other teams.

Tournament history

EAP Women's Championship

* 2010: 3rd place (3 teams) * 2012: 3rd place (6 teams) * 2014: 3rd place (5 teams) *

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

: 2nd place (3 teams)

Pacific Games

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

: Gold medal (6 teams) *

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

: Gold medal (4 teams)

Current squad

''Updated on 12 January 2024''. This lists all the players who have played for Samoa in the past 12 months or were part of the most recent squad.

Records and statistics

International Match Summary — Samoa Women ''Last updated 17 June 2025''

Twenty20 International

*Highest team total: 140/7 v.

on 5 October 2022 at Vanuatu Cricket Ground,

. *Highest individual innings: 57 *, Kolotita Nonu v.

on 6 October 2022 at Vanuatu Cricket Ground,

. *Best innings bowling: 6/8, Olive Lefaga v.

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

on 12 March 2025 at N'Du Stadium,

Nouméa Nouméa () is the capital and largest city of the French Sui generis collectivity, special collectivity of New Caledonia and is also the largest Francophone city in Oceania. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main i ...

. Most T20I runs for Samoa Women Most T20I wickets for Samoa Women T20I record versus other nations ''Records complete to WT20I #2376. Last updated 17 June 2025.''

References

{{National sports teams of Samoa Women's national cricket teams Cricket, women * Samoa in international cricket Women's sport in Samoa