History of cricket in Cook Islands
Cricket in the Cook Islands has enjoyed a long history, with the Rarotonga Cricket Club being the first cricket club registered in 1910. Played mainly at that time by expats it quickly expanded to include the outer islands of Aitutaki and Mangaia while also capturing the hearts of many Rarotongan’s. In the mid 1950’s cricket stopped being played in Mangaia and soon after playing numbers on Rarotonga dwindled, however retained between 6-8 clubs. In 2000 Cook Islands became an ICC Affiliate Member. 2009 was a real turning point for Cook Islands Cricket when it appointed its first General Manager, Alister Stevic.
Since 2009 cricket has over gone a revival as the people of the Cook Islands embrace cricket like never before. Cook Islands Cricket is widely recognised as one of the most successful and progressive sporting codes in the Cook Islands and after 6 months of taking his post Stevic was nominated as the Sports Administrator of the year for 2009.
In that time men’s teams numbers have risen from 16 to 28, women’s from 6 to 27, junior playing numbers from 48 to 3,000, over 100 newly certified officials and senior cricket expanding to four outer islands including the revival of cricket on Mangaia.
Partnership with Northern Districts Cricket
Cook Islands Cricket has enjoyed a long and productive relationship with premier state cricket association Northern Districts Cricket. The relationship was formed in early 2002 through the EAP office’s ‘State Provincial Partnership Programme’ which matched state and provincial associations from New Zealand and Australia with member countries from within the region.
Beginning with small steps the Northern Districts Cook Islands Cricket relationship began with current first class Northern Districts coach Grant Bradburn preparing and taking the national men’s team to regional international tournaments. In recent times the relationship has evolved and Northern Districts Cricket provides exceptional support in equipment and promotional material and coach and umpire development visits. Cook Islands Cricket has taken the supportive relationship to new heights to include programmes that allow for elite New Zealand based Cook Islands Cricketers the opportunity to train with Northern Districts teams and for top ranked Cook Islands umpires to travel to New Zealand to be mentored by local experienced umpires and officiate in tournaments.
Northern Districts Cricket Umpire Colin Elstob came out in 2010 and in addition to enthusing all the umpires, he qualified 18 as NZ Cricket Level ll umpires.
Northern Districts Cricket Operations Manager Pat Malcon made his second successful trip during the winter of 2010 where he visited men and women club teams in Rarotonga and Aitutaki, delivering practical sessions on best training practices to encourage player membership, quality coaching and player retention. He also provided examples of training sessions and pre match warm up drills (meet with alot of laughs and smiles).
The ND - CI Cricket partnership as Pat put it recently is the "Jewel in the Crown" of the SPPP partnership.
International competition
The senior national team has competed at the 2001 and 2002 Pacifica Cricket Championships, and the 2007 ICC Cricket Trophy held in Auckland. Cook Islands also took part in the 2006 Pepsi ICC EAP Cricket Trophy in Brisbane where it missed out to Fiji on a spot in the 2009 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers and elevation to Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Three. In 2009 the Cook Islands attended the Pepsi ICC EAP Cricket Trophy in Samoa, where they finished in 6th position. In a rebuilding phase the team intentionally comprised primarily local based players compared to previous years where New Zealand based Cook Islanders dominated selections. A significant amount of effort has also been placed on the development of its junior and women’s high performance teams, however are yet to showcase their skills regionally as the women’s, U17’s and U19’s teams applications to play in regional tournaments were all declined.
With programmes expanding across the board for 2011 Stevic has said that the Cooks has Associate status within its sights and with senior playing standard being the biggest criteria yet to satisfy and a year of three potential international tournaments then this could become a reality within the next 2 years.
Tourism
Isolation from global markets and a relatively small GDP makes income procurement a challenge for Cook Islands Cricket however it has taken innovative steps to capitalise on a booming tourism market by offering touring packages catering for social and competitive groups.
