By Bockarrie Allieu
FREETOWN, Aug 3 (SALONE TIMES – 232news.com) – Both Male and Female Sierra Leone’s U-19 cricket national teams are in intense preparation to take part in both ICC Africa division2 male and female World Cup qualifying tournaments.
The female tournament will kick-off on 1st September and ends 13th September 2022 in Botswana. Sierra Leone is in group B with the host country Botswana, Uganda and Namibia. In Group A are Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda Malawi and Mozambique. Two teams will qualify from each group for the semi-final stage. The U-19 girls started the preparation for the above tournament together with the senior women’s team who were also preparing for the Nigeria Women’ T20 Series in Lagos this year. They continued training even when the senior women’s team departs to Nigeria.
According to their head coach Ibrahim Sinneh Kamara they have trained enough and they are now doing fitness, batting strokes and perfecting their bowling skills. He went on that very soon they will be announcing the final names of 14 players to start team training. Sinneh assured that they have trained enough to take on their opponents in the tournament. He went on that all what they needed now was to get enough fund to motivate the ladies. He called on Sierra Leoneans to come onboard and help the ladies to acquire their dream. The U-19 Boys started their own training by taking part in the SLCA Premier league and the U-17 Boys league. The U-19 Men’s tournament will take place in Nigeria Abuja in September 21st -28th September 2022. In the Men’s T20 ICC Division2 qualifier, Sierra Leone falls in group B together with the host country Nigeria, Botswana and Rwanda. In group A are Kenya, Malawi, Ghana and Mozambique. The U-19 Boys head coach Alie John Kamara is equally very confident that they will qualify to the division 1 qualifier tournament for the world cup. John Kamara (Decox) once took the U-17 national team to Nigeria and returned home with the 3rd place trophy. This time he said the mistakes they made will not be repeated as their aim is to win the champion trophy and qualify to the division1 qualifying stage.
