11 Jul 2021

Botswana Cricket Association (BCA)  is prepared to host the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa qualifier slated for September 7 - 20 in Gaborone.

Speaking during the first virtual ICC media engagement recently, BCA president, Faz Sheriff said they were ready to welcome Cameroon, eSwatini, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. 

He highlighted that necessary COVID-19 protocols were in place to ensure the safety of both players and officials, adding that accommodation and transport were also ready. 

Sheriff said the women’s national team was ready for battlen. 

For her part,  ICC Africa regional manager, Patricia Kambarami, said they experienced growth in the number of women taking part in cricket across Africa, citing as an example, the 11 countries that would be competing in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa qualifier. 

She said four women from Africa were recently selected to be part of the ICC Africa future leaders programme. 

“This programme is meant to accelerate the growth of women’s cricket and women in cricket,” she added. 

Kambarami said they were working with governments of various African countries to introduce cricket entry level programmes in schools. 

“Our member states have in recent years invested in building facilities or improving existing ones,” she said, adding that all this afforded the countries the ability to stage domestic competitions as well as international tournaments of the highest standards, which would improve quality of the game. 

She said new coaches had been trained, while ICC introduced online training for its members, adding that a number of countries such as Botswana and Nigeria had received ICC development awards in cricket, which was a sign of progress. 

In an interview, Botswana women’s national team coach, Innocent Chando also highlighted that his team was ready for the tournament. 

Chando said the team did not perform well at the last tournament in Rwanda. 

He said they were working on identified weaknesses from the previous tournament and were hoping for better results. 

Chando urged the nation to not lose hope on the team, promising that they would do better in the next tournament. Ends