Added edge helps Vanuatu make history

As Vanuatu captain Selina Solman prepared to lead her team out onto the field during their home ICC T20 World Cup regional qualifiers campaign earlier this month, she made sure she had some wise words close at hand.

Inspired by a leadership session with Australian legend Cathryn Fitzpatrick the previous day, Solman got a teammate to scribble the words ‘stay positive’ on a piece of tape she had stuck to her forearm.

Solman was leading her side in a home tournament where they were hoping to make history by winning the East Asia Pacific regional event and thus booking a spot in next year’s global qualifying event for the first time.

Her team had enjoyed a dream start to their campaign, defeating the region’s highest-ranked team Papua New Guinea for the first time ever in their opening match.

But they still needed to pull off a perfect campaign to guarantee their spot in the global qualifier – and it was those words of wisdom that helped Solman keep a cool head as both she and her team navigated unfamiliar territory throughout the remainder of the tournament.

"It helped me a lot," Solman told cricket.com.au in Vanuatu. "I usually get nervous, but (now) I feel calm and I’m trying to be the best example I can for my team.

"The leadership (training was helpful because) I think, for me, sometimes it's a bit hard to lead the girls - they're all my friends and we're all the same age.

"I wrote 'stay positive' because that's one of the things, I get really nervous out there, especially when I'm batting.

"I've also learned to be 'where my feet are', stay in the present and I think that helped me a lot."

A history-making tournament ended with Solmon and her team lifting the trophy for the first time in front of a jubilant home crowd and ensuring they would advance to the next step on the journey to the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.

The ICC T20 World Cup East Asia Pacific qualifier returned this month after a four-year gap – the 2021 edition was cancelled due to COVID – and organisers were determined to make the most of the tournament off the field as well as on.

That led to the staging of a leadership program alongside the event, as Cricket Australia partnered with both the ICC, as well as the Australian Department of Foreign and Trade DFAT through the PacificAus Sports Program, which provides access to high performance sports training and development for Pacific athletes and para-athletes in areas such as leadership, coaching, media engagement and commentary.

That support allowed Australia legends Mel Jones, Julia Price and Cathryn Fitzpatrick to fly into Vanuatu to attend the program and provide their expertise and advice to more than 100 cricketers from the seven competing nations, as well as up-and-coming commentators – including former Vanuatu player Melissa Fare and former White Ferns captain Maia Lewis.