‘Is it PNG’s time yet? We’ll see’ – Joe Dawes
“A lot of upsides, but a lot of work to do,” said Joe Dawes, the Papua New Guinea coach, when asked about his job at the Cricket World Cup Qualifier.
That sums it up nicely. The Australian is working with an ambitious and talented group of cricketers who want to be at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, but, by the coach’s own admission, might not quite be up to it yet.
Dawes is 47, and after his playing career was cut short by injury, he has travelled a fair bit as a coach – as bowling coach of the Indian men’s team, as assistant coach of Australia Women, and also in the Big Bash League and Indian Premier League, where he has worked with Adelaide Strikers and Kings XI Punjab.
The position as a successor to Jason Gillespie with PNG was made formal in February 2018.
“There are plenty of good things but the biggest challenge is we’ve got an entire team coming from a small village [Hanuabada]. We’ve got three-four-five families who are living in one tin shed. But they love they game, they want to get better. We know where we are. We certainly have got a lot of work to do to play ball with the big guys. But then I am sure of the hard work, which can’t happen overnight, but it will happen,” said Dawes.
Dawes has settled down with the team quickly and spoke glowingly about the environment for cricket on the beautiful island. “We’ve got 200,000 people playing cricket in PNG, and six or seven thousand are playing hard-ball cricket,” he says. “Greg Campbell, the CEO, is doing a fantastic job out there with 50 new cricket wickets down around the country to continue to drive development. That’s the surprising thing. It’s not just a little island above Australia; it’s got a really good base there.”
Speaking specifically about the players he is working with, Dawes was realistic. He felt the batsmen weren’t equipped to bat long, but the bowling was decent and the fielding superb – perhaps “the best in the world”. Most of the cricket in PNG is Twenty20, Dawes said, and it would be a “massive jump” for them to bat out 50 overs.
“Is there natural ability there? Absolutely. We have to curb their natural instincts a little bit and make them bat longer,” he explained. “They are incredible athletes. They love it; they throw themselves around. So we’ve got a really good base there. They are driving really high standards with their fielding.”
Reaching the World Cup would be a big boost to cricket in the region, he said. “It will be a wonderful honour. The boys talk about it all the time – they’d love to do it. Is it our time yet? We’ll see. But we’ll just keep chipping away and maybe in four years’ time or maybe four years after that.”
Vani Morea, just 24 but one of the most experienced PNG batsmen, has called Dawes a “role model” for the team because of how hard he works with them.
Dawes reciprocated, saying: “The boys love it. No matter what you put them through they are always smiling and laughing. Which makes it good fun to be their coach. I’m really happy with the group. I have got a lot of work to do, there’s no doubt about that. But they are keen to do it. That’s what they have come to do, and we are going to have a lot of fun doing that.”
In Group B at the qualifiers, PNG have tough fixtures against UAE and Ireland to start with before running into the big boys – Windies. It’s a game Dawes is looking forward to, as are the players: “There’s no doubt that’s a massive game that everyone looks forward to. I believe Chris Gayle is in town. For our boys it’s really, really exciting. At the end of the day they’ve got two arms and two legs – bring ‘em on!”