Vanuatu win bronze medal at Pacific Games

Melissa Martin Faré and Marcelina Mete set up a page on GoFundMe.com back in March, stating that the Vanuatu women's cricket team had not made the list of sports teams that were being supported by the Vanuatu Government and national Olympic committee ahead of the 2019 Pacific Games.

“The team is trying to raise funds to support their Pacific Games campaign after not making the list of sport teams the Vanuatu Government and VASANOC (Vanuatu Association of Sport and National Olympic Committee) will be supporting and sending to the games,” the page said. “That means that the VCA will have to cover all the costs for the women’s team to go which is an excessive 30,000 AUD and with only 3 months left before the Games, we are desperate to raise funds and we need support.”

“In order to gain more experience and exposure to play more international cricket, our women's team would need to participate in any international tournaments they can and this year has given us the opportunity to be able to do that with the EAP World Cup Qualifier in May (hosted by Vanuatu) and the Pacific Games in July.”

Having raised more than $2,200 to participate in the tournament, Vanuatu went on to beat Fiji in the third-place play-off on Saturday (July 13). They chased down their target of 80 in the ninth over, getting home by eight wickets to win the bronze medal.

Hosts Samoa overcame Papua New Guinea in the final to take the gold medal.