Vanuatu, nation of just 3 lakh makes its presence felt in International cricket
Vanuatu. Let’s be honest and there’s no shame here: you did not even know that this was a country.
It’s a string of islands east of the northern part of Australia in the Pacific and its last recorded population was 3.27 lakh people. Of these about 50% are ruled out from this story by virtue of being male. Of the 1.6 lakh remaining, you can leave out another half on the basis that they would be either too young or old to make a cricket team.
And so, from a potential pool of 80,000 (a generous estimate because not everyone is interested in one sport), emerges a team that was in contention for a berth in a World Cup comprising 10 teams from across the globe.
By Indian standards, this is like Basavanagudi (a locality in Bengaluru) making it to the World Cup.
And yet, this is a country in its own right, making its way up in a colonial sport. Traditionally, cricket has only prospered in British colonies. Every attempt to take the game to China or the United States of America — where the next T20 World Cup will be played — has failed dramatically.
But, Vanuatu? “I’m just trying to enjoy the moment when it’s real. We got to take it one game at a time. We were so proud because a year ago we played our first game and we had no coach,” Vanuatu captain Selina Solman told the Final Word podcast after her team shocked Zimbabwe in the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup qualifiers.
“Coming here (to the UAE) was not easy. We were the lowest-ranked team coming here and we had no pressure. We just had to go out there and play. We
