[1] The Peruvian national side made its international debut in 1927, represented by the Lima Cricket and Football Club, playing against a touring MCC team.
The Llamas, under the captaincy of Miles Buesst, lost all their games to finish fourth, but came close to defeating eventual champions, Brazil, in their final match, falling 17 short chasing 253.
The shorter format suited the Llamas' style of play, and Peru, captained by Miles Buesst (and Mike Soulsby, for one match) enjoyed their most successful international tournament to date, with a record of four wins out of five, and a highly creditable 2nd-place finish.
Success was based on a disciplined bowling unit of Miles Buesst, Nadeem Ahmed, Javed Iqbal, Tony Sanford and Dinesh Ekanayake, taking advantage of the low bounce of the wickets, and a large, slow outfield, backed up by good fielding, to starve batsmen of runs and force them into errors.
This approach was typified by Mike Soulsby’s masterly half century, off 63 balls, against Chile, that won him the Man of the Match award.
This was certainly the case against Mexico, who batting first, were rolled over for 49; and then the Falkland Islands were dismissed for 22, the lowest score of the tournament, as some of Peru’s second-string bowlers came to the fore.
As a result, Division Three of the ICC Americas Championship was scrapped, meaning that Peru – along with Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and the Falkland Islands – was no longer included in any ICC-sponsored tournament.
[14] The SAC XIII in Rio de Janeiro, in October 2016, saw an upturn in the Llama fortunes, with Peru claiming the bronze medal by winning three out of five games, against hosts Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.
In a thrilling finale, underdogs Chile sprang a surprise on eight-time winners, Argentina, chasing down 164 with 2 wickets and 2 balls to spare.
[17] The invitees that accepted were Peru, Brazil and M.C.C, who took their place alongside regulars Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and, of course, Panama.
Another of the CAC regulars, Belize, pulled out at the eleventh hour, and their place was taken by a Panama A side, to keep the number of teams at eight, divided into two groups of four, playing T20 games.
Some good late innings clubbing, and hard running, from man-of-the-match Buesst (35*) and Chaplin (5*), saw Peru home with 3 balls to spare, for a famous 5-wicket victory.
In a mirror image of the game the day before, the Panama A reply got off to a fast start and then faltered in the middle overs, as they lost wickets and the run rate increased.
Drained from the morning's narrow loss, Peru's batsman struggled to a total of 109 for 8 from their 20 overs, with Soulsby and Myers again in the runs.
The development of cricket in Peru and Brazil has followed quite similar trajectories since their acceptance as Affiliate Members of the ICC in the early 2000s, with a small group of keen volunteers facing sizable geographical and cultural challenges.
To encapsulate this relationship, in 2011 it was decided to inaugurate the Amistad Cup (actually a Thermos flask), which would be awarded to the winner of any men's cricket game between Peru and Brazil.
[18] October 2014 was the date of the inaugural Coca Cup, a tri-nation T20 series between Peru, Brazil and non-ICC affiliated Colombia.
When he was out, Nick Jones, 24*, took up the mantle, and the Brazil batsmen passed the Colombia total for the loss of 4 wickets, with 10 balls to spare, to claim the first Coca Cup.