By Bockarie Allieu
FREETOWN, Mar. 04 (SALONE TIMES) – The Senior Female National Cricket team has been invited to take part in a five nation female tournament this month in Lagos, Nigeria. The above tournament is organized to grade the national teams and individual players in Africa and the World ranking. Besides the ranking, the Sierra Leone U-19 girls have been the only national team in the North/West Africa region invited to take part in the ICC U-19 World Cup qualifying tournament in August this year at a venue to be announced later. In lieu of the U-19 tournament, few of the U-19 players will be part of the team that will be travelling to Nigeria as part preparation for the U-19 tournament. The participating female teams will arrive in Nigeria on the 27th March 2022. The team is presently engaged in training with crop of players that will be shortlisted soon. In their last tournaments for both the senior male and the female teams, the government told the association to finance the tournament and they will reimburse them on return. However, since the team returned they are still yet to receive a single cent from the government. The Chairman of the association Francis Samura said they used monies that were meant to develop the game and loan the remaining fund elsewhere. He said that if they do not receive the said fund from the government it will be difficult for them to take part in the tournament in Nigeria. Samura went on that if they failed to take part in the tournament, it will tell on their ranking as their ranking will drop. Besides, he said it will be an embarrassment for Sierra Leone going out of the competition at the eleventh hour. The Technical Director of the association Gabriel Anthony said the ladies have been training for the above tournament since last year and that they are in high spirit to win the champion trophy. If they fail to take part in the tournament, he added, it will psychologically affect them as some will as well decide not to play Cricket again. The Vice-Captain of the team Aminata Kamara has assured the nation that they are in high spirit for the tournament. She went on that they have worked on all the mistakes they made in their last tournament and going to Nigeria the sky will be their limit to lift the champion trophy. She appealed to the government to fund them to go and lift the flag of Sierra Leone high in Nigeria.
