Polo

Kilikiti is the Samoan practice of cricket. It is very popular with Samoans in New Zealand. In Auckland the Secondary Schools Senior tournament is held at the Auckland Domain annually and regarded as the largest kilikiti tournament in New Zealand. Schools, families and church groups attend the games to support the players and also involve themselves in all aspects of the games – this includes food, drinks, singing and dancing.

Samoans adopted and developed the game kilikiti from the game of cricket which the missionaries bought to Samoa and because of difficulty with pronunciation the sport was called kirikiti. The name was then altered and changed to ‘kilikiti’ to take on the changes in the Samoan pronunciation of ‘r’ to ‘l’ however at formal events the game of kilikiti is addressed as kirikiti.

The game rules of kilikiti are similar to those of cricket except that, there are 21 players and it is important that all players must wear an ‘ie lavalava’. The kilikiti bat is called a ‘Pate’ and it has a triangular shape comprising of two flat surfaces and one curved surface, the curved surface is used to hit the ball with. The length of the pate varies according to the requirements of the player – short ones are used for less skilled players and longer pate for an experienced player. The kilikiti polo is smaller and softer than a standard cricket ball. The ball is made by continuously wrapping the processed pandanus leaf around with sap extracted from the panama rubber tree (Castilloa elastica) until the required ball size and shape is achieved.