Report on Fiji games (8-10th April, 2003)

The Fiji Games, which is an annual event for all sports organized by FASANOC, was held in Suva from the 8th to the 10th of April, 2003 at Suva Grammar School and Marist Brother's Hugh School grounds.

Action from Fiji Photo © ICC

The Fiji Cricket Association invites the Under 19 Teams of various districts to participate at this tournament where medals are issued. The winning team gets the Gold Medal, the runners-up gets the Silver and the third place getter gets the Bronze medal.

We were very fortunate that an Under 16 Team from NSW, called the Mitchel Cricket Council participated with our local teams. A big thank you to Carl Sharpe for arranging to bring his team and MCC to be here for the Fiji Games.

Six teams registered to be part of the tournament and they were drawn into two pools.

Pool 1	Pool 2
Lau 1 (Lakeba)	Suva
Lautoka	Lau 2 (Komo/Moce)
Labasa	Mitchel

The Disputes Committee was made of Seci Sekinini (Chairman) and Mohammed Ali Maqbool.

The matches were restricted to 30 overs and one day rules applied.

RESULTS

8th April - Tuesday Suva Grammar School Grounds

POOL 2 Game 1
Suva all out for 104 runs and Lau (2) all out for 100 runs. A win to Suva by 4 runs.

POOL 2 Game 2
MCC all out for 141 runs and Lau (2) all out for 58 runs. A win to MCC by 83 runs.

POOL 1 Game 1 - Marist Brothers High Grounds
Lautoka all out for 73 runs and Lau (1) were 4 for 74. A win to Lau 1 by 6 wickets.

POOL 1 Game 2
Labasa all out for 79 runs and Lau (1) were 6 for 89 runs. A win to Lau 1 by 4 wickets.

9th April - Wednesday

POOL 2 Game 3 - Suva Grammar School Grounds
Suva all out for 72 runs and MCC was 1 for 73. A win to MCC by 9 wickets.

POOL 1 Game 3
Lautoka all out for 110 runs and Labasa were all out for 98 runs. A win to Lautoka by 12 runs.

SEMI -FINALS
Suva all out for 78 runs and Lau (1) were 3 for 82. A win for Lau 2 by 7 wickets.

Lautoka were all out for 33 runs and MCC were 1 for 35 runs. A win to MCC by 9 wickets.

FINAL
MCC were all out for 174 runs and Lau (1) were all out for 100 runs. A win to MCC by 74 runs.

THIRD PLACE
Suva were all out for 170 runs and Lautoka were all out for 23 runs. A win to Suva by 143 runs.

A very good display of cricket was shown by MCC to our local players and I believe that the MCC Team enjoyed the beautiful weather and the games. Since no overseas team can win the medals, the Gold went to Lakeba/Lau, Silver to Suva and Bronze to Lautoka.

During this tournament the final list of 22 players were selected to prepare for the Under 19 Games in Namibia. A match was organized for the players selected to play the MCC team the next day. The MCC team were all out for 148 runs and the Under 19 Selection were all out for 78 runs.

The tournament showed a lot of individual talents and more local teams are expected to attend next year. If an overseas team is wishing to come over we will be very glad to have them come and play cricket at the Under 19 Fiji Games 2004.

I would like to thank all the Coaches, Managers, Team Officials, Umpires and players for making this tournament a success. Thank you.

Mohammed Ali Maqbool
Tournament Organiser