One of the most popular games in the world, cricket is played by countries the world over and has grown vastly in popularity in recent years.
The advent of Twenty20 or T20 cricket, in particular, has seen the game growing exponentially lately with new countries taking to the shortest format of the sport.
At present, there are more than 100 teams that play cricket with 12 full member nations and 96 associate members as the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The T20 World Cup 2024, in fact, features 20 teams participating in the tournament in what is the biggest cricketing World Cup yet.
Following the accelerated growth of cricket of late, fans are getting to see more new teams participating in the sport apart from the traditional powerhouses of the game like Australia, England, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and West Indies, to name a few.
The T20 World Cup 2024 itself is featuring several new sides and one such team is Papua New Guinea, who are making their 20-over World Cup debut.
After their opening match in the tournament against West Indies, several fans were left wondering what is PNG full form in cricket.
PNG full form in cricket
PNG full form in cricket is the Papua New Guinea men's national cricket team. Nicknamed the Barramundis, PNR in cricket is basically an abbreviation for the country Papua New Guinea, which is located in Oceania.
PNG is the world’s third largest island nation and has been playing cricket for sometime now. Cricket PNG is the governing body for the sport in the country and has been an associate nation of the ICC since 1973.
PNG earlier had One-Day International (ODI) status after finishing fourth in the 2014 World Cup Qualifier and receiving its 50-over status as a reward for their performances.
However, they would go on to lose both their ODI and T20I status in March of 2018 after losing a playoff encounter against Nepal at the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier.
That said, they regained both their ODI and T20I status a little over a year later in April 2019 after securing a top-four finish in the 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two.
Widely regarded as the strongest team in the East Asia-Pacific region, Papua New Guinea is currently ranked 20th in the ICC T20I rankings.
From 2015 to 2024, PNG have played 62 T20I matches and have won 35 of them. They’ve lost 26 times, while one match ended in no result.
Their highest total in T20Is came against Philippines in July 2023 when they posted 229 for six and registered a 100-run win at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup East Asia-Pacific Qualifier.
While they lost their opening T20 World Cup 2024 encounter by five wickets against West Indies, PNG put up a good show and fought valiantly.
PNG will be hoping to get their first win in their debut T20 World Cup with matches against the likes of Uganda, Afghanistan, and New Zealand still to come.
Photo credit: Alamy
