As Samoa relaxes its state of emergency orders, sports around the country are beginning to return and young cricket players, in particular, could not have been more excited on Wednesday. 

On Wednesday, close to 200 students from five Catholic primary schools participated in the Catholic Under-12 Boys and Girls tournament at Tuanaimato Cricket Oval. 

The tournament had previously been postponed due to the lockdown. 

Young players from Saint Joan’s in Leulumoega, Saint Joseph in Leauva'a, Saint Theresa, Marist Brothers and Divine Mercy U-12 students were excited for the return of the sport.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, the sports coordinator of the Samoa International Cricket Association (S.I.C.A), Perelini Mulitalo, said excitement had just begun.

“Today is mainly for fun for the young ones and so it’s bringing the feeling of sports back into the field and I can see that the students and parents have been waiting for this moment to finally happen,” she said.

The tournament is an annual event. 

The Divine Mercy Primary School has dominated both the boys and girls competitions on Wednesday. 

The rest of the other teams may have been placed second to fifteenth but were in high spirits just to compete. 

According to Mrs. Mulitalo, the Under 12s used entirely plastic materials based on their age and strengths.

On Thursday, the same schools will continue to another tournament as the Girls Under-15s at the same ground. 

“This time, we’ll use real cricket [equipment] and the real competition starts tomorrow,” Mrs. Mulitalo said.

The Girls’ Under-15 competition will continue until Friday 29 May, awaiting the senior’s competition on Saturday.

The Boys’ Under-15 competition is scheduled to play between the 11th to the 13th of June 2020.

The competitions for the different categories are run across three districts, Tuamasaga, Vaimauga and Safata.

According to the sports coordinator, interest in cricket among young players continues to increase. 

“We have that mentality in a majority of homes that sports are not important unlike the palalagi (foreigners) but from what I’m seeing, the parents have been excitingly supportive of the sports and the number of students keeps increasing especially like today,” she said.