By Bockarie Allieu
The technical and selection committee of Cricket Sierra Leone have down sized the number of players to 22 players. According to the Chairman of Cricket Sierra Leone Francis Trevor Samura, who also doubles as the chairman of the selection committee, said some of the players were under suspension for indiscipline while some are still yet to improve on their batting rates and bowling.
In this case, the 22 players will continue to play another trial matches for some days before they will finally cut down to 17 players next Tuesday.
The team Manager of the senior men’s team Serry Turay said they want a team that are good enough to play and win matches and not a player that will travel and did not play a single match.
Serry told the other selection committee members to seriously take discipline into consideration while selecting payers for the final 14-man list.
The 17 players, according to the chairman will continue to train until few days to their departure date on the 19th November 2024 to Abuja Nigeria when they will announce the final list of 14 players.
Sierra Leone’s senior men’s national team (The Patriots) is in qualifier C. together with host country Nigeria, Botswana, Ivory Coast, Saint Helena and Eswatini.
Among the six countries the top two countries will automatically qualify to the next stage to join Namibia. Uganda and the four qualifiers from the other qualifiers in qualifier A&B
Namibia and Uganda were given a bye after taking part in the last Men’s T20 W/C Competition. Sierra Leone’s senior men’s team the Patriots, aims not only to qualify but to return home with the champion trophy with an unbeaten record.
A week after the ICC T20 W/C Qualifier the team will again take part in the West Africa T20 Championship cup in Abuja. As it is going to be a double tournament, the chairman has made it clear to the players that any player who fails to perform well in the first competition will be replace with another player at home.
He went on that among the final 17-man list, 14 players will make it to Nigeria while the 3 players will be on the standby in case any player fails to perform well.
