Exciting Papua New Guinea fast bowler Raymond Haoda has become the first player from a non-test playing country to take the most wickets at an ICC Under-19 World Cup.
Haoda took 15 wickets at 17.26 in this year’s tournament in New Zealand to lead the table ahead of highly regarded prospects such as Graham Hume (South Africa), Nathan Buck (England), Aftab Alam (Afghanistan), Chatura Peiris and Charith Jayampathi (Sri Lanka), Jason Holder (West Indies), Usman Qadir (Pakistan) and Josh Hazlewood and Alister McDermott (Australia).
The previous best ranked performance by a player from a non-test playing country was at the 1998 event in South Africa when Kenya’s Thomas Odoyo dismissed 15 batsmen at 15.80 to finish third on the wicket takers table.
Haoda, who has come through the PNG development program, is described as being quick for an 18 year old with the potential to add more pace in the future.
His complete World Cup bowling figures were 8-1-54-1 v Bangladesh, 7.1-2-44-2 v Pakistan, 10-0-37-3 v West Indies, 8.3-0-34-5 v Afghanistan, 9.4-0-65-2 v Bangladesh and 10-1-25-2 v Canada.
The leading wicket takers at previous Under-19 World Cups have been Wayne Holdsworth (Australia) and Mushtaq Ahmed (Pakistan) in 1988, Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies) and Mluleke Nkala (Zimbabwe) in 1998, Zahid Saeed (Pakistan) in 2000, Xavier Doherty (Australia) and Waddington Mwayenga (Zimbabwe) in 2002, Emanul Haque (Bangladesh) in 2004, Moises Henriques (Australia) in 2006 and Wayne Parnell (South Africa) in 2008.
All of those players went on to play First Class and List A cricket and there is no reason why Haoda should not do the same with hard work, dedication and an opportunity.
For now he will now resume playing on scholarship with the Marist-Harewood CC in New Zealand, which is part of a Cricket PNG initiative in conjunction with Sir Brian Bell, a long time supporter of the game in the country.
Careers of leading wicket takers at all Under 19 World Cups.
Tests ODI FC ListA T20I T20 Wayne Holdsworth 1988 (Australia) 0 0 68 35 0 0 Mushtaq Ahmed 1988 (Pakistan) 52 144 309 381 0 29 Ramnaresh Sarwan 1998 (West Indies) 83 152 186 218 11 25 Mluleke Nkala 1998 (Zimbabwe) 10 50 48 87 1 1 Zahid Saeed 2000 (Pakistan) 0 0 75 58 0 0 Xavier Dougherty 2002 (Australia) 0 0 29 75 0 20 Waddington Mwayenga 2002 (Zimbabwe) 1 3 22 36 0 0 Emanul Haque 2004 (Bangladesh) 14 10 64 42 0 0 Moises Henriques 2006 (Australia) 0 2 15 30 1 30 Wayne Parnell 2008 (South Africa) 1 21 21 38 8 23 Raymond Haoda 2010 (Papua New Guinea) ? ? ? ? ? ?
