Asad Vala

Assadollah "Assad" Vala (born 5 August 1987) is a Papua New Guinean cricketer. A left-handed batsman and off spin bowler, he has played for the Papua New Guinea national cricket team since 2005.

Biography

Born in Papua New Guinea in 1987, Assad Vala first represented Papua New Guinea at Under-19 level, playing in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh. He made his debut for the senior side at the 2005 ICC Trophy in Ireland, where he played his seven List A matches.

He returned to 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, an event he has repeated in 2007 and 2008.

In 2007, he played in Division Three of the World Cricket League in Darwin and most recently represented his country at the 2007 South Pacific Games, where he won a gold medal in the cricket tournament.

Since then, Assad has become the best batsman in the EAP region. He competed for PNG in the Division Two where he had an average tournament. But it was in the Division One tournament where he began to come of class. He was the leading run scorer with 372 runs in 6 games, making 2 fifties and a century (116 of 59 against Japan). He carried this into the Twenty20 Qualifier where he had a solid tournament top scoring with a well made 52 against Canada.