BY BOCKARIE ALLIEU (232news.com)
Cricket Sierra Leone Ltd is preparing three national teams for three international competitions. Among them are the Senior Men’s National Cricket team, The U-19 national team, and the Senior Women’s national team. The senior Men’s team The Patriots will depart Sierra Leone to Nigeria on the 22nd of June 2023 to take part in the North-West Africa regional qualifier for the Africa Men’s T20 Tournament in South Africa. Sierra Leone falls in group A with the host country Nigeria and Cameroon. Group B are Ghana, Gambia and Mali. According to the fixtures two teams will qualify from each group for the semi-final stage to find three teams that will represent the North-West Africa region in the Africa Men’s T20 Tournament in South Africa. Just after the Abuja-Nigeria tournament, the U-19 Junior Patriots national team will travel to Tanzania to take part in the U-19 Division1 World Cup qualifier. In August the senior Women’s national team will travel to Botswana to take part in the Women’s T20 World Cup qualifier. Talking to the media the Chairman of Cricket Sierra Leone Francis Trevor Samura said they have gifts for the presidential candidate that will be winning the 2023 general elections. He went on that he is sure the three teams will all return home with trophies. These trophies he said they will present to the president-elect of Sierra Leone as his gifts. Francis went on that the three teams are fully prepared for the three tournaments and that all they need is funds to motivate the players, buy tickets, and for other expenditures. He has called on the government and business houses to come to their aid to fly the flag of Sierra Leone high in the three tournaments.