PNG Men to Cairns, Australia

PNG All Star men to play in Cairns Super League All Star tournament.

Cairns Basketball has officially invited the PNG All Stars team to compete in the far North Queensland Super League All Star weekend which will be taking place from January 22 to 24. The PNG Men’s development side has been in hard intensive training at the Ela Beach Basketball Courts for the last 6 weeks.

The team compromises a sprinkle of experienced players such as Lawrence Lahari, Peter Davani and Wally Parapa with the electrifying youth talent of Lei Banduru, Sibona Kala, Steven Siola, Vele Rupa, Veuga Taviri, Eke Kendi, Bland Tony and Sting Koiri.

The team is basically the foundation for the next five years as PNG Mens basketball looks to get back up to the glory days when it was in the top three way back in 1991 during the then SP Games here in PNG. The Coaches are Ferdinand “Boyet” Daroya and Moses Koiri with Team Manager being Nick Daroa.

The annual event, which will attract teams around North Queensland, will be a stepping stone for the PNG team to prepare for the South Pacific Games in 2015.  Over that weekend the team will be playing a series of exhibition games which includes the City vs. Country All-Star game, along with a minimum of two exhibition matches for the PNG team.

The PNG side begin their first match against Cairns Select on the Friday January 22nd and later on Saturday they will meet Cairns Taipans Academy.

PNG men’s basketball team has been struggling for the last decade to get back to its glory days and this will be a vital match to help with the skills when competing at that high level. In order for them to do that, the team needs a sponsorship of K15,000 to send the team to Cairns. The team has already undertaken their own fundraising, starting with the successful 'bemobile three on three' basketball competition happening down at the Ela Beach basketball courts.

By KEVIN TEME
PNG Post Courier Newspaper