BY BOCKARIE ALIEU

232NEWS, FREETOWN —

Cricket Sierra Leone technical team in collaboration with the Board members have announced the final list of 14 female players for the ICC Women’s World Cup Africa qualifier in Botswana. The 14 players are a mix-up of U-19 and senior players. The team started the preparation for the above qualifier few months with the national female league. At the end of the league a crop of 30 players were selected for training and trial matches. A month to the tournament the technical present players plus three stand by players for the tournament to board who approved and allowed them to announce the list of players selected. The team will depart Sierra Leone on the 31^st August and will arrive in Gaborone on the 1^st September. The tournament is slated to kick-off on the 2^nd September to the 9^th September 2023. After reviewing the 2022 data ICC decided to split the qualifier into two divisions namely- Division1& Division2.

The two top teams in division 2 will play in division one. According to the finishing positions in 2021 qualifiers which were held in Botswana, the teams that will contest Africa Division one and division two were put into two groups. Sierra Leone is in Division2 with the host country Botswana, Cameroon, eSwatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi and Mozambique. The two top teams in the division two will contest in division 1 to get two top teams to represent Sierra Leone in the Global Women’s T20 World Cup tournament. The division 1 competition will kick-off on the 7^th December 2023 to 18^th 2023.