The New Caledonia cricket team is the team that represents the French overseas territory of New Caledonia in international cricket 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 and the cricket tournaments of the South Pacific Games.
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. It is currently mostly played by women.Article about cricket in New Caledonia
In April 2024, it was reported by France 24 that Prebagarane Balane, the chairman of Association France Cricket, had signed a memorandum of understanding with New Caledonia's sports minister Mickaël Forrest, which would oblige the local cricket committee to register all 3,000 of its players with France Cricket. The MOU grants France Cricket "the right to call up players in New Caledonia for the French national team, but not if they play the non-standard form of the game"
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, in which three Fijian batsmen retired after scoring centuries in their innings of 433/5.Scorecard of Fiji v New Caledonia, 3 February 2001 at CricketArchive 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.Scorecard of New Caledonia v Vanuatu, 4 February 2001 at Cricket Archive The first round concluded with a 309 run defeat by Tonga when they were bowled out for just 25.Scorecard of New Caledonia v Tonga, 5 February 2001
The play-off stages didn't go much better for the New Caledonians, starting with a 231 run loss to the Cook Islands.Scorecard of Cook Islands v New Caledonia, 7 February 2001 at Cricket Archive 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 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.Scorecard of New Caledonia v Vanuatu, 29 May 2002 at Cricket Archive Their second match against the tournament hosts Samoa was lost by seven wickets when no New Caledonia batsman reached double figures.Scorecard of Samoa v New Caledonia, 30 May 2002 at Cricket Archive
Another comprehensive defeat, this time losing by 278 runs to Tonga continued their tournament,Scorecard of New Caledonia v Tonga, 1 June 2002 at Cricket Archive 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.Scorecard of Cook Islands v New Caledonia, 4 June 2002 at Cricket Archive 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 in Fiji started with New Caledonia taking on Samoa. As was becoming the case by this time, they lost, this time by 147 runs.Scorecard of New Caledonia v Samoa, 30 June 2003 at SportingPulse The following match saw yet another comprehensive defeat as New Caledonia lost to the Cook Islands by 254 runs.Scorecard of Cook Islands v New Caledonia, 1 July 2003 at SportingPulse Their third tournament match, against Fiji went much the same way, losing by ten wickets.Scorecard of Fiji v New Caledonia, 2 July 2003 at SportingPulse
Vanuatu beat New Caledonia by 108 runs in their next tournament match,Scorecard of New Caledonia v Vanuatu, 4 July 2003 at SportingPulse 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.Scorecard of New Caledonia v Papua New Guinea, 5 July 2003 at SportingPulse 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 in Samoa. They started with a heavy defeat, losing to Fiji by 383 runs.Scorecard of Fiji v New Caledonia, 28 August 2007 at Cricket Archive Their second match continued their losing streak as Tonga beat them by nine wickets.Scorecard of New Caledonia v Tonga, 29 August 2007 at Cricket Archive
After a rest day,2007 South Pacific Games at Cricket Archive 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.Scorecard of New Caledonia v Papua New Guinea, 31 August 2007 at Cricket Archive 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.Points table for the 2007 South Pacific Games 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: 6th place 2007: 5th place 2011: 4th place 2015: 4th place 2019: 4th place
References