SACA cricket boss Jamie Cox says a fact-finding mission to Papua New Guinea has him convinced the PNG national team will shock South Australian cricket next summer.

And he has boldly predicted members of the Hebou Barramundis, who will play in Adelaide's new six-team Premier League from September, will make state and Big Bash League teams within three years.

Cox spent a hectic two days at Cricket PNG's base in Port Moresby working with its leading players and officials, and also took in a visit to the abjectly poor cricket-mad village of Hanuabada.

"I'm pleasantly surprised," Cox said after overseeing the Barramundis two-hour training session in sapping heat.

"I know why people are excited when they do come up here. We have here a team that is going to surprise a few blokes that play against them.

"There's a keenness and an enthusiasm that is hard to train, even a toughness in their cricket you can see that I find pretty inspiring.

"It's raw but it's natural and I can see it's dangerous.

"The great thing about this (Premier League) competition is we've now got an international team that our guys can play against and compete against and hopefully improve against.

"I'm convinced it's an important piece in our puzzle."

The general manager of PNG Cricket, former Australian Test player Greg Campbell, is currently lobbying Cricket Australia to allow his players to be regarded as Australian locals in a bid to give them greater opportunity for selection in a state team or BBL franchise.

Cox has said he will support Campbell's push.

"They've got a handful of players here who aren't far off the mark," he said.

"And having seen some of the backgrounds of these boys I suspect the determination to make a living out of the game is very strong."

The PNG national team is captained by 28-year-old Chris Amini. He's confident the team will be extremely competitive against the SA-based Premier League teams and says it will finally provide the Hebou Barramundis with the opportunity to play together on a regular basis.

"The SACA Premier league is going to be huge for us," he said. "It gives us an opportunity to play together and we love to play together. We love to have fun.

"I grew up in Melbourne and many of us have played in Brisbane for the last three years so we are no strangers to Australian conditions."

Cricket PNG took Cox on a tour of Hanuabada, where the stench of rotting garbage fills the air, and addiction to the local "beetle-nut" is chronic.

The seaside village features ramshackle houses miraculously standing atop rickety stilts high above the ocean.

But it is also a gold mine of cricketing talent and is home to virtually the entire PNG national side.

Cox stopped to take part in a makeshift cricket game, which former PNG captain Rarua Dingara said was so commonplace throughout the community traffic is forced to divert from the main road.

Featured in this inpromptu match was a young girl who stroked technically perfect cover-drives before scampering through for runs while her opponents fetched the ball out of the water's edge.

"Every afternoon at around 3pm the kids get out of school and turn the streets into cricket fields," Dingara said.

Cox took great delight in watching the kids playing ferociously on the street.

"Some of these young players have great natural levels of skill," he said.

"Right across the board it's been a fantastic exercise."