23 Aug 2018

Former England international cricket star Lydia Greenway says Botswana players have great potential to develop further in cricket if they continued working hard.

Greenway has been invited by Botswana Cricket Association to impart her knowledge of the game to women’s national team players.

She helped to drill the team ahead of the Women’s International T20 Tournament which was taking place in Gaborone this week.

Greenway, who has played for the England women’s team for 13 years and won two world cups in 2009, said Botswana was blessed with talented players.

She said in an interview this week that she was impressed by how the team applied fielding, bowling and batting skills in its first three matches of the tournament.

Botswana beat Lesotho, Namibia and Mozambique to emerge as one of the strongest teams in the competition.

The team comprises of promising young cricketers such as Shameela Mosweu, Goabilwe Matome, Laura Mophakedi, Olebogeng Batisani, Thandiwe Legabilwe and Botsogo Mpedi among others.

“I think the skills and the talent is already there, but what they need is more time developing those skills. Botswana Cricket Association has done brilliantly in giving the girls time to use the facilities. What we have been doing specifically was skills development and also to run the tactical side of things,” she said when asked about her impression of the team.

She said she had helped drill the team on how to pace in innings, and on different types of bowling, and also assisted batters to work on their strengths and weaknesses, and where they can score runs and options available to them.

It was not the first time Greenway worked with the local girls as she was here again for the same tournament last year.

“The purpose of my visit was to work again with the Botswana team and also to speak to all the other teams so that I share my knowledge and insight to help them improve.

She said she had noticed improvement in the way the team was fielding and how the bowlers worked around during the game situation compared to last year.

She said she has urged the players to train hard so that they could become a better player.

“Obviously their skills have improved much, so it is really promising to see that they have been working hard. I think they have a huge amount of potential. A lot of the players are still very raw and I think the most important thing is that they want to improve and want to develop their skills,” she said.

Greenway further explained she noticed a lot of improvement from all the teams participating in the competition this year.

She however said there was still a gap between the standards of cricket here compared to Europe.

She said the reason there was that gap was because players in England were mostly professionals and train day in and day out to hone their skills.

“With Botswana, I have seen a big development over the space of a year and if they can continue with the improvement they will keep moving up the rankings,” she said.

Greenway said she started playing cricket when she was about five years old and got picked for the England youth team at the age of 14.

She made her England debut at the age of 17 and went on to win two world cups while representing her country.

After retiring, she set up a coaching school for cricket, we specialise in delivering coaching in schools especially for girls. “I think it is good for any girl to have female role models, I think it can increase their aspirations to aim higher,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Women’s International T20 Tournament will come to an end tomorrow at the cricket oval. ENDS