Josefa Rika

Josefa Falani "Joe" Rika (born 9 November 1987) is a Fijian cricketer who made his debut for the Fijian national side in June 2006. Beginning in 2010, he has captained the side in several international tournaments, and also worked for Cricket Fiji in coaching and development roles.

Educated at Lelean Memorial School, Rika made his debut for the Fijian under-19 team at the 2001 EAP Under-19 Trophy, aged only 13. Playing alongside his older brother, Colin, he played in all for matches, but scored only 14 runs and failed to take a wicket. In 2003 and 2005, no separate under-19 tournament was held for ICC East Asia-Pacific members, with those teams instead competing alongside teams from the ICC Africa region. In the 2003 combined tournament in Namibia, both Fiji and Rika had little luck with the bat, although Rika took figures of 3/14 against Nigeria. At the 2005 combined tournament in South Africa, he was Fiji's leading runscorer, finishing with 126 runs. His best was 41, against Uganda.

The EAP Under-19 Trophy and Africa Under-19 Championships were re-established as separate competitions in 2007, with the EAP tournament held in Vanuatu. Appointed Fiji's captain, Rika began the tournament with scores of two against Vanuatu and four against Papua New Guinea, but in the following match, against Japan, scored a remarkable 257 runs from 145 balls, out of a team total of 440/8. His innings included 37 fours and 9 sixes, including three sixes in consecutive balls at one point. A writer for ESPNcricinfo described Rika's innings as "what must rank as one of the most breathtaking knocks in the history of age-group cricket". Fiji again faced Japan in its next match, the third-place playoff, but were set a total of only 36 runs, with Rika scoring another 28 not out from 10 balls. Unsurprisingly, he led the tournament in both batting average and runs scored – the next-best Fijian batsman scored only 50 runs overall.