03 Oct 2013

Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) has established a new National 50 Overs Tournament aimed at providing players with platform for competition.

The eight-team competition was launched recently at BCA Oval in Gaborone and has been divided into two regions, the North and the South.

The Southern teams are Nkwe, Tau, Mokwepa and Tshukudu, while Tlou, Kubu, Nare and Thutlwa form the Northern stream. The tournament which is set to last six weeks will be played in the round robin initially, before entering the knockout stage and the top two finishers in each region will face each other in the semifinals with winners advancing to the championship match in Gaborone on November.

In the absence of an organised cricket league BCA sees the initiative as opportunity to unearth players for national teams.

“The tournament will be the first edition of such annual encounters allowing for player identification, who will have the opportunity to represent our country in the regional and international competitions under the ICC & ACA banners in the near future,” stated BCA publicity secretary Sumod Damodar.

Damodar said Mirch Masala Restaurant has agreed to sponsor trophies and medals for champions and runner-up, as well as man-of-the-match awards. Meanwhile during the inaugural match last Sunday, Akhlaq Raja scored a century from 72 balls as Nkwe set the ball rolling by clobbering Tau with 75 runs.

As the competition enters its second week buoyant Nkwe are hunting their second victory in a row after their ruthless mauling of Tau.

They will clash with Mokwepa at Lobatse Cricket Oval on Sunday morning while the other match in the Southern region sees Tshukudu take on Tau at the BCA Oval. Tlou locks horns with Kubu while Nare faces Thutlwa in the North. All matches start at 9.30am. ENDS