Meet the World Cup of Darts 2019 teams: Lithuania and New Zealand

The World Cup of Darts 2019 will take place from 6-9 June in Hamburg. Dartsnews introduces the competing nations ahead of the start of the event.

We are paying attention to Lithuania and New Zealand in this article. Lithuania is competing in the World Cup of Darts for the first time, while the Kiwi's have entered the field for the ninth time.

Lithuania

The Lithuanian team makes his debut at the World Cup of Darts this year. Darius Labanauskas and Mindaugas Barauskas received the honour to defend their country for the first time.
Labanauskas is primarily responsible for the invitation of Lithuania. The Baltic state was shoe-horned into the field at the expense of Switzerland. Lucky D caused an upset during the World Championship as he defeated Raymond van Barneveld in the second round. The Lithuanian won his Tour Card in January and achieved his first PDC ranking final in May. His teammate Barauskas is mainly active on the PDC Nordic & Baltic Tour.

Darius Labanauskas

Nickname: Lucky D
Age: 42
World Cup participations: 1
Best performance: Debut (2019)
First round opponent: New Zealand
PDC Ranking: 84

Mindaugas Barauskas

Nickname: - Age: 39 World Cup participations: 1 Best performance: Debut (2019) First round opponent: New Zealand PDC Ranking: -

New Zealand

Cody Harris and Haupai Puha represent New Zealand at this year's World Cup of Darts. Harris makes his fourth appearance, while Puha debuts at the nation tournament.
Although New Zealand is participating for a ninth time, the nation from Down Under has not been very successful in the tournament history. The Kiwi's only reached the second round in 2010 and 2015. This was before Harris made his first appearance in 2016. After that, New Zealand lost in the first round on three occasions. Puha received an invite after topping the DPNZ ranking in New Zealand.

Cody Harris

Nickname: The Codestar
Age: 33
World Cup participations: 4
Best performance: First round (2016, 2017 and 2018)
First round opponent: Lithuania
PDC Ranking: -

Haupai Puha

Nickname: Hopes Age: 34 World Cup participations: 1 Best performance: Debut (2019) First round opponent: Lithuania PDC Ranking: -

Previously introduced teams