Kabara overturned last year’s final heartbreak to claim the 2026 Cricket Fiji Easter Games title, defeating defending champions Suva by six wickets at Albert Park in Suva yesterday. The island side’s victory ended a two-year run in which they reached the final three times, having lifted the trophy in 2024, fallen to Suva in last year’s decider, and now exacted what team manager Volau Baleyaga called a “sweet redemption.”
Based on the remote island of Kabara in the Lau Group, the team reached the top despite limited preparation and scarce training facilities. Baleyaga said the squad only had one month to prepare for the tournament but compensated through strict discipline and spiritual focus. “We placed a ban on alcohol, kava and smoking with an emphasis on spiritual preparation heading into the competition,” he said, crediting faith and sacrifice for the turnaround.
Baleyaga acknowledged the discipline was not easy at first, but the players stuck to the ban during the final three weeks before the Easter Games. He said the team will mark the win and lift the ban with a special church service. The manager framed the measures as part of a broader effort to keep players focused and to set a positive example for their home community on Kabara.
The results on the field — finishing the chase with six wickets in hand on a Suva home ground — underscored the team’s resilience. Baleyaga highlighted how the achievement means more than silverware for a tight-knit island community: “With this victory we hope it will keep more of our youths and village members interested in the game after this competition, keeping them away from these social problems affecting our nation,” he said, referencing ongoing concerns about drug-related issues in Fiji.
Kabara’s Easter Games triumph is the latest example of cricket’s role as a community anchor in Fiji, where island teams often contend with geographic isolation, limited facilities and short preparation windows. Their success against a city-based champion at Albert Park will likely be pointed to by clubs and development officers seeking ways to engage young people through sport.
The win also resets the rivalry between Kabara and Suva at the top of the Easter Games, with Kabara reclaiming the title two years after their first win in 2024. For Kabara, yesterday’s success is both sporting vindication and a morale boost for a remote island community that relied on discipline, faith and collective sacrifice to topple the defending champions.
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