The national women’s team will be missing its top bowler in their opening 2024 Women’s T20I Pacific Cup matches today, due to an injury.

Cook Islands will take on Samoa and Fiji in the opening day of the tournament being held in Auckland, New Zealand.

Grant Walker, president of the Cook Islands Cricket Association, confirmed that the team’s top bowler, Sonnia Vaia, has suffered an injury and will not feature in today’s matches.

However, Walker remains confident of the team’s chances in the tournament which features four other East Asia Pacific nations, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Vanuatu, and the Aotearoa Māori select team.

The T20 games against the EAP nations will offer ranking points, while matches against the Aotearoa Māori team, featuring NZ domestic and White Ferns players, will be friendly exhibitions.

Walker said Cook Islands, ranked 55^th in the world, was better ranked than Fiji but “slightly behind” Samoa “who was ranked 40^th in the world couple of year ago”.

“They are reviving their programme and their team is significantly different to what we saw in September … they have some New Zealand domestic players and they’re a strong side.

“They played against Kumeu Cricket Club in their warm up and their performance was similar to ours.

“I’m expecting two wins but we know both matches will be competitive.”

The national side played two warm up matches last week, including against Kumeu which Cook Islands won convincingly, and held various stimulated training sessions.

Against Kumeu Cricket Club, Cook Islands retired their top batswoman at 58 runs and managed to score 160 runs for loss of seven wickets.

“We are a little disappointed that we couldn’t secure all our top players due to family and work commitments but we have a very young and strong side who are enjoying the experience and looking forward to their matches.”

Walker said one of the major highlights so far was having access to the Auckland University Cricket Club’s international standard training facility for the entire tour which started over a week ago with the men’s team who are preparing for the 2024 ICC World Cup qualifier in Samoa later in the year.

He said they were proud to witness the enormous progress their international programme had made so far and the connections they have managed to build in New Zealand.

The access to the Auckland University Cricket Club training facility was facilitated by the club’s president Matt Taylor who is married to a Cook Islander. Their son Oscar featured for the Cook Islands men’s team during this month’s tour.

Walker also attended the East Asia Pacific Regional Meeting and had a chance to brief the participants, including chair of the International Cricket Council Greg Barclay, on their development programme.

“So the story of Cook Islands cricket has reached the top level at ICC … we are taking enormous steps (in development),” Walker said.

The national side led by captain Tetiare Mataora includes Mummy Elikana, Ioane Evangelean, Zamera Ikiua, Koitai Mataora, Tailor Miaka, Maya Piakura, Tapuaiva Piakura, Angite Ruarau, Sofia Samuels, Sonnia Vaia and Esther Williams.

The 2024 Pacific Cup will be held at the Lloyd Elsmore Park (Tamaki Makaurau Auckland).

The tournament is hosted by New Zealand Cricket and will be broadcast live on TVNZ and SKY Pacific.

Teams will face each other through pool play, culminating in a grand final on Sunday, January 21.

The 2024 Pacific Cup will also represent an opportunity for nations to build capability around cricket with coach, umpire, and player development sessions planned for attendees.

The tournament will be officially opened with a pōwhiri today. Māori and Pacific cultures will be on full show at the cultural evening on Friday.

Fixtures

Tuesday: 10:30am - Cook Islands v Samoa; 3:00pm: Cook Islands vs Fiji; Wednesday: 3pm - Papua New Guinea vs Cook Islands; Thursday: 10:30am: Aotearoa Māori vs Cook Islands, 3pm: Cook Islands vs Vanuatu; Saturday: 10.30am: 3rd vs 4th playoff, 5th vs 6th, Grand final (1st vs 2nd).