Asadollah Vala (born 5 August 1987) is a

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er and the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of the national side. A left-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

and

off spin Off spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners bowl with their right-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery is called an off break, which spins from left to r ...

bowler, he has played for the Papua New Guinea national team since 2005.CricketArchive profile
/ref>

Early career

Born in Papua New Guinea in 1987, Assad Vala first represented Papua New Guinea at the under-19 level, playing in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh.Other matches played by Asad Vala
at CricketArchive He made his debut for the senior side at the

2005 ICC Trophy The 2005 ICC Trophy was a cricket tournament held in Ireland between 1 July and 13 July 2005. It was an international one-day tournament played over 50 overs per side between 12 Associate Members of the International Cricket Council. It served a ...

in Ireland, where he played seven

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

matches. He returned to the under-19 level later in the year, playing in the Africa/East Asia-Pacific Under-19 Championship at Willowmoore Park in Benoni, South Africa. In 2006, he played for a combined East Asia Pacific team in the Australian National Country Cricket Championship, and did so again in 2007 and 2008. In 2007, Vala played in

Division Three The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the Third Division become the fourth tier of English football. In 2 ...

of the

World Cricket League The ICC World Cricket League (WCL) was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status (i.e., teams of Associate status) administered by the International Cricket Council. All Associate Members of ...

in Darwin and represented his country at the

2007 South Pacific Games The 13th South Pacific Games (), also known as Apia 2007, were held from 25 August to 8 September 2007 in Apia, Samoa. The Games were the thirteenth to be held since the inception of the South Pacific Games in 1963, and included traditional multi ...

, where he won a gold medal in the cricket tournament.

International career

He made his

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) debut on 8 November 2014 against Hong Kong in Australia. He made his

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

debut against Ireland in the

2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier The 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, for the 2016 World Twenty20, was held from 6 to 26 July 2015. The tournament was hosted by both Ireland and Scotland. 51 matches were played among 14 nations, down from 72 matches among 16 nations previous ...

tournament on 15 July 2015. In June 2015 on his

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

debut, he scored a match-winning 124

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

against the Netherlands in the 2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup. He scored three hundreds in his first four matches, also making centuries against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

(120) and

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

(144

). In February 2018, the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

(ICC) named Vala as one of the ten players to watch ahead of the

2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier The 2018 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place during March 2018 in Zimbabwe. It formed the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales. The top two t ...

tournament. In June 2018, at the Papua New Guinea Cricket Awards he won the Tony Elly Medal for the best male player. In August 2018, he was named as the captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for Group A of the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 East Asia-Pacific Qualifier tournament. He was the leading run-scorer in Group A of the tournament, with 294 runs in six matches. In March 2019, he was named as the captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for the Regional Finals of the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 East Asia-Pacific Qualifier tournament. The following month, he was named captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for the

2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two The 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two was an international cricket tournament that took place in April 2019 in Namibia. It was contested by six teams; Canada national cricket team, Canada, Hong Kong national cricket team, Hong Kong, Om ...

tournament in Namibia. In June 2019, he was selected to represent the Papua New Guinea cricket team in the men's tournament at the

2019 Pacific Games The 16th Pacific Games (), also known as Apia 2019, were held from 7 to 20 July 2019. The Games were held in Apia, Samoa, returning there for the first time since 2007. It was the third time overall that the Pacific Games were held in Samoa. The ...

. In September 2019, Vala was named as the captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for the 2019 United States Tri-Nation Series. In the final match of the series, against

, he scored his first ODI century, with 104 runs from 114 balls. In September 2019, he was named as the captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for the

2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier The 2019 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament held during October and November 2019 in the United Arab Emirates to determine the teams that would qualify for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament. The six teams finis ...

tournament in the United Arab Emirates. Ahead of the tournament, the ICC named him as the key player in Papua New Guinea's squad. He was the leading run-scorer for Papua New Guinea in the tournament, with 197 runs in eight matches. In November 2020, Vala was nominated for the ICC Men's Associate Cricketer of the Decade award. In August 2021, Vala was named as the captain of Papua New Guinea's squad for the

2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20, a Twenty20 cricket tournament that took place from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The tournament was hosted by Unit ...

. In May 2024, he was named the captain in Papua New Guinea’s squad for the

2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the ninth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, co-hosted by Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket from 1 to 29 June 2024. It was the first major ICC tournament to include matches played in the United ...

tournament.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vala, Assad 1987 births Living people Papua New Guinean cricketers Papua New Guinea One Day International cricketers Papua New Guinea Twenty20 International cricketers Place of birth missing (living people) Pacific Games gold medalists for Papua New Guinea Pacific Games medalists in cricket