Cook Islands national cricket team
The Cook Islands national cricket team is the team that represents the Cook Islands - an island country in a free association with New Zealand - in international cricket. The team is organised by the Cook Islands Cricket Association, which became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2000 and an associate member when all affiliate members were promoted to that status in 2017.
| Association | Cook Islands Cricket Association | |||||||||
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| Personnel | ||||||||||
| Captain | Ma'ara Ave | |||||||||
| International Cricket Council | ||||||||||
| ICC status | Associate member (2017) Affiliate member (2000) | |||||||||
| ICC region | East Asia-Pacific | |||||||||
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| Twenty20 Internationals | ||||||||||
| First T20I | v Samoa at Vanuatu Cricket Ground, Port Vila; 9 September 2022 | |||||||||
| Last T20I | v Vanuatu at Vanuatu Cricket Ground, Port Vila; 15 September 2022 | |||||||||
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| As of 1 January 2024 | ||||||||||
The Cook Islands' first international tournament was the 2001 edition of the Pacifica Cup, which was played in New Zealand. The team has played at ICC East Asia-Pacific tournaments, and at the 2006 EAP Trophy finished second to Fiji and narrowly missed out on qualifying for the World Cricket League. Outside ICC tournaments, the Cook Islands fielded a team in the cricket tournament at the 2003 South Pacific Games, winning the bronze medal.
In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between the Cook Islands and other ICC members since 1 January 2019 have the full T20I status.
Cook Islands was scheduled to return to international competition at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa, but choose not to participate and instead concentrate on development of the national team.
In September 2022 they played the Tāmaki Makaurau Tāne, an all-Māori squad, in Auckland, New Zealand, before participating in the T-20 Cricket World Cup East Asia Pacific Sub-Regional Qualifying Tournament in Vanuatu. They came third in the qualifiers. Following the competition, they were ranked by the ICC for the first time, at 55th of 82 teams.