By Bockarie Allieu
FREETOWN, July 1 (SALONE TIMES) – Sierra Leone U-19 Boys National included in the teams that were to take part in the ICC U-19 Div.2 tournament in Botswana will miss out.
The above tournament was first slated to take place in June this year but was deferred to August 2021 due to increase in COVID19 cases in the Southern Africa.
But even with the new date in August, the tournament organizers find out that it can’t be possible as the number of new cases continue to rise instead of decreasing.
In this case, ICC has decided for time factor to cancel the Div.2 tournament and select 2 countries from the division 2 to join the others in the division1 to play in Nigeria.
According to the Team Manager of the national U-19 team Daniel Koroma, ICC selected the two countries base on their last five ICC division2 performance.
This led ICC to select Tanzania and Rwanda above Sierra Leone. Daniel said the exclusion of the U-19 in the Nigeria Tournament was a disappointment and a big loss to the team.
He went on that they were far ahead in preparation for the Div2 tournament and were fully confident of qualifying for the div.2 tournament.
Notwithstanding, he said ICC promised to back to them may be to include or to let them wait for another tournament. But he said up to the time he was talking to SALONE TIMES Sports, there was no message from ICC on that issue.
Daniel though said the senior national Men’s have two tournaments to play in October and November. The female team, he said also has 2-3 tournaments to play but they are waiting for the dates to be announced.
