The Kumul Petroleum PNG Lewas & Barras have had access to specialist coaching and access to Cricket Australia’s National Cricket Centre and resources over the past two months thanks to the PacificAus Sports Program. The partnership, only signed in August, has already provided huge benefits to the National teams and High-Performance department. The program is linked to specific activities starting with the Kumul Petroleum Barramundis participation in the Cricket Australia sanctioned NT T20 Strike competition in Darwin in August. This competition provided much needed highly competitive cricket with the Barras playing against two BBL franchises, a Cricket Australia XI and the Northern Territory, all sides stacked with international and state players as well as the best of the up-and-coming talent in the Australian system. Following on from that tour, the PacificAus Sports program supported ex Australian cricketer and coach, Michael Dighton, to join the Barramundis in a specialist coaching role throughout their CWCL2 home series with Namibia and the USA. The Lewas then just last week had the opportunity to attend a High-Performance camp in Brisbane at the National Cricket Centre. This was the first time the Lewas have had access to this facility, during the camp they also had guest coaches from both Cricket Australia and Queensland cricket to aid their preparation for the upcoming Pacific Cup being held in Vanuatu. Cricket PNG CEO, Greg Campbell, welcomes the support from PacificAus Sports “ this partnership is invaluable to the growth of our teams and programs moving forward. The Lewas having access to specialist coaches working within the Australian and Qld Fire programs, they have established relationships and we have already had enquiries from these coaches on how they can continue to be involved and they are keen to come up to PNG. We were able to form a mentor program between our Strength & Conditioning coach, Otto Wrakonei and his Qld counterparts while at the NCC, this enables a transfer of information and future secondment positions in both countries. The program is only in its infancy, but we have already seen tremendous benefits, especially towards our women’s program. This is creating not only access but allows them to see what is available and where we want to get the women’s program to, parity is the goal and to achieve this we need to find more investment from our partners and corporate sponsors into the Lewas program.” The Lewas are currently competing in their last international event for 2022 and the Barras will play their last event for the year in Namibia in November. The PacificAus Sports program will continue it’s support over the summer aiding player placements in the Australian domestic competitions. There is also additional High-performance camps planned as well as specialist coaches coming in to assist in Port Moresby early in 2023.