The Cook Islands Cricket Association has finalised its men’s national squad for the ICC East Asia Pacific Sub Regional Qualifier A tournament to be held from August 16 to 24 in Apia, Samoa.

The national team played a few friendly matches against New Zealand’s Cavaliers in Rarotonga last week as part of its preparation for the Asia Pacific Sub Regional Qualifier.

Four Rarotonga based players, Tim (Teaomua) Anker, Pita Ravarua, Tiaki Wuatai and Tomakanute Ritawa, who featured in the friendly matches, travelled with head coach Craig Murray to Auckland, to meet the remaining members of the national team based in New Zealand before heading to Samoa this week.

The NZ-based players are: Ma’ara Ave (Captain), Liam Denny, Cory Dickson, Hayden Dickson, Milton Kavana (vice-captain), Aue Parima, Thomas Parima, Andrew Samuels, Oscar Taylor and Jared Tutty.

“We’re very confident. We did really well in 2022. We were still in contention on the last day and it rained, we got rained out. So we feel that we’ve got some unfinished business and yeah, I think we’ve got a better side this time. We are hoping for real good things in Samoa,” coach Murray said.

Cook Islands Cricket Association president Grant Walker says the team will compete for placement in the combined Asia and EAP T20 World Cup Regional Qualifier to be held in 2025.  

The winner will join the EAP Sub Regional B winner, four Asian Sub Regional Qualifiers, as well as Nepal, Oman and Papua New Guinea.

Three of those nine teams will advance to the 2026 T20 World Cup to be held in India and Sri Lanka.

The Cook Islands squad will be ably assisted by team manager Rahul Patil and team physiotherapist Blake Taylor.

Walker said: “Preparations for this event have been ongoing for months with both a New Zealand based training squad and a Cook Islands based squad. We are confident this team will showcase the talent and passion of the Cook Islands and make the country proud.”

The team departed Auckland for Samoa on Monday. Cook Islands will play its first match on August 16 against Vanuatu at 10.30am (Cook Islands time).

Walker said Vanuatu is the highest-ranked team at the competition, but they remain confident.

Cook Islands will play Fiji and the host, Samoa, in the remaining matches. 

The six-match event will be streamed live on icc.tv.