Tony Ura, one of Papua New Guinea’s senior and experienced Cricket player is back with the Men’s National Cricket Train on Squad and has lived up to the expectations of Cricket PNG.

A top order batsman, he is considered as one of the most dangerous and powerful hitters of a cricket ball when he gets focused and settled on the cricket turf.

Ura recently starred for the PNG Indigenous Invitational team in Mackay, Australia at the National Indigenous Cricket Championships, hosted by Cricket Australia. The PNG side played 6 matches, winning 5 and losing 1 match. Ura starred for the PNG Team with 2 Player of the match award in two matches and was also named the Player of the Tournament.

The humbled and soft spoken man from Hanuabada village in Port Moresby city said although he is happy and pleased with himself for achieving what he did in Mackay, he still has to work hard in training to impress the selectors and team officials to hopefully make the final Team for the T20 World Cup East Asia-Pacific Qualifiers in Japan from 8th to the 18th of May.

Ura spent his time playing with a few teams in Australia, taking part in championships and other competitions just to stay in shape and work on his game, when Cricket PNG reached out to him.

“It’s good to be back with the Barramundis team. I’ve been watching the team struggling, especially with the young players. My role will be to motivate the younger players with my experience and help them to do well in big matches,” says Ura.

The Barramundis top order batsman was grateful to Cricket PNG for giving him another opportunity to be back in the team. However, he has only made it back onto the Train on Squad and his aim is to make the final team for the T20 World Cup East Asia-Pacific Qualifiers in Japan.

The team is currently in an intensive two-week training under the watchful eyes of High Performance and Head Coach, Tim McCaskill. The final team will be announced by the end of this month (April) and will leave for Japan on the 5th of May.